DEFENSE/Defense minister highlights gray-zone response, HIMARS deployment in drills

Taipei, June 26 (CNA) Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) on Thursday highlighted key features of the upcoming Han Kuang exercise live-fire segment, including responses to gray-zone coercion by China and the deployment of newly acquired weapons such as the U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket system.

The Han Kuang exercises are Taiwan's largest-scale annual military drills, with this year's live-fire segment set to run for 10 days, from July 9-18, across the country -- twice as long as previous iterations, which typically lasted five days.

"The exercise scenario will be extended to include gray-zone harassment by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) during peacetime," Koo said at the fourth meeting of the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, an advisory group established by the Presidential Office.

To counter medium and high-intensity gray-zone harassment by the PLA, Taiwan's military will rehearse activating emergency command centers and raising its readiness level based on key warning indicators of a potential PLA attack, Koo said.

"The Joint Operations Command will then issue immediate combat readiness drill orders," he said, adding that Taiwan's psychological and cyber warfare units will also conduct operations to counter the PLA's public opinion, psychological and legal warfare tactics.

During the Han Kuang drills, newly acquired weapons will be deployed, with the forces prepared to integrate firepower into a "kill chain" in the event of a PLA invasion, Koo said.

Those set to feature for the first time in the Han Kuang exercises include the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) -- procured from U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin -- Taiwan-developed Land Sword II surface-to-air missiles, and various types of drones, he added.

As for the structure of the drills, Koo said that from July 9-12, the exercises will simulate a potential PLA invasion beginning with escalated gray-zone harassment, while July 13 will focus on a simulated joint fire strike and amphibious landing by the PLA, with Taiwan's military entering the joint counter-landing phase.

From July 14-18, the drills will simulate on-island combat, during which Taiwan's armed forces will carry out coastal and beachhead battles in response to the PLA's advancing offensive, Koo added.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, Interior Minister Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) outlined events to be held under the newly launched Urban Resilience Exercises and provided details of the upcoming civil defense drills in July, which the government has designated "National Unity Month."

Three Urban Resilience Exercises -- conducted without pre-set scripts and focused primarily on wartime rescue scenarios -- will take place on July 15, 16 and 17 in Taichung, Tainan and Taipei, respectively, Liu said.

The three drills will be held in tandem with the Han Kuang exercises to "validate civil-military communication," she added.

Liu said air defense drills will also be held on July 15, 16, and 17 in central, southern and northern Taiwan, respectively, from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

In eastern Taiwan and the offshore islands, drills will be conducted from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., on July 18, Liu said.