Army vehicles roll through Taoyuan streets in combat readiness drills

Clouded Leopard armored vehicles from the Army's 269th Brigade cruised through the streets of Qingpu Special District in Taoyuan on June 22 as part of the five-day "Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise" that runs until June 26. Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said Qingpu is strategically located between the Taoyuan coastline, the urban center of Zhongli District and Taipei. Its dense urban landscape and network of creeks make it ideal for defense-in-depth operations aimed at slowing an enemy advance and buying time for Taiwan's forces to launch a counteroffensive.