DEFENSE/Army's Penghu command holds live-fire night drills for the first time

Taipei, Oct. 25 (CNA) The Army's Penghu Defense Command held its first-ever live-fire drills at night on Thursday aimed at getting the military accustomed to the possibility of an invasion by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the dark.

The exercise was conducted at the Wude area in the southern part of the main island in Penghu County on Thursday evening.

According to Penghu Defense Command officials, the entire exercise was performed to simulate the potential actions that would be taken by the PLA in a surprise nighttime invasion.

Officials said the exercises, which the media was invited to attend, consisted of aerial, naval and land simulations in the dark.

The land drills featured CM-21 armored vehicles and M60A3 tanks deployed with soldiers armed with weaponry, and they were all equipped with night-vision gear to provide soldiers clear views.

Live ammunition was also fired around the beaches of the area to prepare for a possible land attack by the PLA.

To counter a simulated aerial invasion using unmanned aerial vehicles, the army deployed flares to light up the night sky to fire 120 millimeter mortars into the air.

Naval simulations involved the possibility that the PLA navy might penetrate Taiwan's waters disguised as fishermen, the army said, which subsequently involved the firing of ammunition from the land to sea.

In response to the drills, the Coast Guard Administration issued a notice to local fishermen and boat users warning them there would be a military exercise with live fire in the waters near Wude.

The drills were held in a total of 18 locations, and over 32,000 rounds of different kinds of ammunition were fired.

On what was the most difficult aspect of firing ammunition at night, army officials said it was fighting through sand blown by gusts of wind that were strengthened by seasonal northeasterly winds as well as the visual challenges brought by nighttime combat.