Latest PLA threats in focus as Taiwan kicks off annual Han Kuang war games with computerised simulations
- Five-day online drills come amid high tensions in the Taiwan Strait, with two major PLA live-fire exercises staged since August
- PLA ‘obviously practising an attack from the east’, security researcher in Taipei says, noting warplane sorties and Shandong aircraft carrier drills
The tabletop drills began at the Hengshan Military Command Centre in Taipei on Monday, Taiwanese military officials said. As in previous years, the exercise will also feature a live-fire segment, which will be staged in July.
“The computer part of the war games is being held 24 hours a day till Friday, testing the coordination between commanders and officers in response to a PLA attack under various scenarios,” a spokesman for the Taiwanese defence ministry said.
“Our drills are based on the threat of the PLA attacking Taiwan under various scenarios, including its large-scale live-fire exercises encircling Taiwan in August and the latest one in April,” he said, referring to drills conducted in response to high-level exchanges between Taipei and Washington.
Military personnel taking part in the computerised games used the US-built Joint Theatre Level Simulation platform to practise joint, combined and coalition civil-military operations, the spokesman added.
He declined to say if the US had sent observers to take part in the online drills as part of its increased military exchanges with Taiwan in line with its 2023 National Defence Authorisation Act.