Han Kuang 41, Day 1-3 Recap
Reservists, Tanks, and Aircraft Dispersal
Hello everyone, Happy Han Kuang.
Things are in full swing over here in Taiwan with military units all across the country conducting exercises…all working towards the same goal of practicing how to stop an invasion from China.
For the past 3 days, I’ve been on the ground covering all of the major events so far, and this is what I’ve seen.
Day 1, Reservists
On the first day, we took a drive out to Taoyuan to meet up with the 206th Infantry Brigade at a middle school. This brigade is made up of mostly reservists, so all of these guys have completed military service before being called up. Local police stations were responsible for issuing call-up notices, with the average notice time being about 30 days.
When we arrived, there were 5 stations. Machine gun/rifle handling, mortar training, map reading, understanding tactics, and CQB. Officers told me about 200 people were here, and in total, the 206th was made up of about 3000 people.
Overall, Taiwan has called up a record 22,000 reservists for this year’s Han Kuang. Compared to training in the past, it seems like Taiwan is coming through on its promise to be more realistic about its defense, but it’s still early days. But what do you think? Here is some more reservist training:
Day 2, Tanks and Missiles
On the second day of Han Kuang, we went with the military to 抗子口 in Hsinchu, which is the largest tank training facility in Northern Taiwan. It’s also home to the newly delivered M1A2T tanks. The military was going to conduct the first-ever live-streamed shooting drill using the brand-new tanks.
When the $2 billion M1A2T deal was announced in 2019, I was a sophomore in college in Taiwan, and I wrote a paper about how bad that decision was. Taiwan’s streets are way too narrow, the bridges too small and fragile, and it was way too expensive.
But…here they are:
The military said that his round of live-fire shooting was NOT part of the Han Kuang, but with so much of the world watching and training already ongoing…why not stream it?
Overall, not much to say about the tank drill.
I think what was more interesting on Day 2 was what the Navy was doing. Footage shows Navy personnel helping the Coast Guard arm one of its ships with Hsiung Feng 2/3 anti-ship missiles. These are domestically made and pack quite a bunch.
The military says that more cooperation between the Navy and the Coast Guard is expected, given the increasing threats they both face from the PLAN and CCG.
Day 3, Aircraft Dispersal and Air Defense
Both in Hsinchu and in Hualien, other reporters were telling me that the skies were buzzing with fighter jets. That’s a pretty traditional part of Taiwan’s strategy as a lot of pilots will practice flying from the west coast, which is closer to China, to the east coast and into hardened shelters.
Taiwan also practiced how to re-arm, re-supply, and re-fuel under “wartime conditions”. That means refueling while the engine is still hot.
While this was in eastern Hualien, here in the capital, residents were surprised to see Patriot batteries deployed along the riverside park. They were moved here to practice defending Songshan airbase. As you can see by the plane in the background, it’s just across the river.
This is pretty much all the major events/drills so far, but as Han Kuang transitions from responding to grey-zone tactics to coastal defense, I’m sure we will see more action.
I’ve done news pieces for a lot of these exercises, which you can see on TaiwanPlus News, and make sure to follow Taiwan Security Monitor for our “Han Kuang Tracker”. We are teaming up to provide the most up-to-date info and analysis regarding the drills.
That’s it for now!