Wargame Shows Armed Forces Progress in Joint Operation Ability: MOFA

Taiwan Government, TAIPEI: A recently concluded computer wargame showed that the armed forces have made remarkable progress in their joint operation capability, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Thursday. 
 
MND officials made the remarks when they reported on the results of the computer wargame of the “Hankuang No. 22” series of military exercises at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan's Defense Committee. The live fire drills of the “Hankuang No. 22” exercise will be held later this year. 
 
On April 24, the MND began a five-day, round-the-clock simulation of various scenarios, including a strategy of “shock and awe” used by the United States in Iraq, a “decapitation” strategy of assassinating the nation's leaders, and an attack aimed at paralyzing the nation's nerve centers by disrupting its communications systems. 
 
The wargame demonstrated that the armed forces have made remarkable progress in their joint operation capability, with the Air Force and Navy coordinating effectively in an interception exercise, the officials reported. 
 
The newly commissioned Kidd-class destroyers from the United States have also contributed a great deal to the command and control of the Navy fleet and to its anti-air capability, they continued. 
 
In the wargame, Taiwan was barely able to maintain its combat ability after its missile sites, airfields and radar stations were seriously damaged in a first-wave attack by China using pilotless remote-control airplanes and missiles due to Taiwan's insufficient pre-warning system and counter-missile capability, the officials said. 
 
The results of the wargame show that the arms procurement package from the United States is crucial to the nation's defense, referring to the MND's request for a package of six Patriot-PAC III anti-missile batteries, a squadron of 12 P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft and eight diesel-fueled submarines that has been blocked by the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan for nearly two years. 
 
They also reported that training of military personnel has largely been upgraded, thus enabling the personnel to operate sophisticated weaponry systems.