(Express) – Taiwan carried out its largest military exercise in five years to simulate a possible Chinese invasion as tensions with Beijing continues to rise. The island, situated off the coast of south-east China, staged a drill featuring 22 warships and 22 fighter jets yesterday. The boats involved in the war simulation included two anti-aircraft and anti-submarine guided-missile warships, while the jets counted, among other aircraft, the Mirage 2000, the F-16 and the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) – the nickname for
the AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, a multirole combat airplane. The Taiwanese forces fired their cannons, missiles, depth charges, and machine guns during the simulation. But they also worked on anti-submarine tactics in the waters close to coastal cities Suao and Hualien to tackle Chinese submarines, considered Beijing’s most worrying threat by Taiwan. And land and naval forces together carried out a drill focused on defending strategic naval port towns, which included responding to a threat coming from the air, with enemy jets flying over the Taiwan Strait, according to Central News Agency. READ MORE
