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Tsai oversees annual Han Kuang military drill

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Tsai oversees annual Han Kuang military drill

Tsai oversees annual Han Kuang military drill

President Tsai Ing-wen arrived at a training base on the Hengchun Peninsula, Southern Taiwan, to oversee a joint-force military exercise on Thursday. This is also Tsai’s first visit to the top state-of-the-art training center in the country after she took office and her first appearance at the exercise as Taiwan president. According to the Ministry of National Defense (MND), this land, sea, and air drill involves a total of 143 army artillery pieces, transport helicopters, fighter jets, ships, tanks as well as the firing of 8,000 rounds of ammunition.

The annual military exercise was first held by Army General Hau Pei-tsun in 1984, and has become Taiwan’s most important war game each year since then. Also known as the 32th Han Kuang Exercise, it highlights an unmanned aerial vehicle departing from Taitung to Renshou Mountain near Kenting to kick off a series of simulated air, sea and land attacks.

An AH-64E Apache attack helicopter and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, which carried an indigenous four-wheel drive military vehicle, were spotlighted during the drill.

Apart from the Apaches and the Black Hawks, the week-long military exercise also involves F-16 Fighting Falcons, Indigenous Defensive Fighters (IDF), Chih-Yang Class Warships, AH-1W Super Cobras, CM-11 Brave Tiger Tanks, and M109A2 howitzers.

Wearing a helmet and a bullet-proof vest while overseeing the exercise, President Tsai Ing-wen gave recognition of the performance and promised to improve equipment and defense capabilities.

Tsai also said that she has instructed the military leaders to tender a draft review report by next January after a sweeping overhaul of the existing military strategies and cultures to respond to the current situation and to technological developments. She urged the officials to involve stakeholders to a great extent to collect good ideas in order to breathe new life into the military organization.