allesennogwat
05-15-2007, 09:06 AM
AFP-Tuesday May 15
Six Taiwanese fighter jets made rare landings on a closed-off freeway Tuesday as part of a military exercise designed to test the island's defences against rival China.
The exercise was aimed at testing the air force's ability to use highways for emergency air landings and logistics operations should the island's air bases be damaged in an attack by Beijing.
The jets, which landed in central Changhua county, were refuelled and loaded with ammunition before leaving the site.
The drill was the second stage of Taiwan's biggest military drill of the year, codenamed "Han Kuang 23".
Troops mobilised tanks on Penghu island in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, simulating a surprise attack by Chinese airborne units trying to capture the military airport, television images showed.
Taiwanese forces also displayed their strength in a pre-dawn live-fire drill on Kinmen, a fortified island group off the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.
Two of the jets that landed in Changhua were carrying US-made medium-range AIM-120 air-to-air missiles for the first time.
Taiwan bought 120 AIM-120s from the United States in 2000, but they were not delivered until 2003.
Beijing had been irked by the US sale of the advanced missiles, which have a range of 50 kilometres (30 miles), as they allow Taiwan's F-16s to attack targets that are beyond their sight line.
In the first phase of the exercise staged last month, a computerised drill showed the island was vulnerable to air attack from its neighbour, Taiwan's defence ministry said.
China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence.
Cross-strait tensions have increased since independence-minded President Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, ending the nationalist Kuomintang party's 51-year grip on power.
Six Taiwanese fighter jets made rare landings on a closed-off freeway Tuesday as part of a military exercise designed to test the island's defences against rival China.
The exercise was aimed at testing the air force's ability to use highways for emergency air landings and logistics operations should the island's air bases be damaged in an attack by Beijing.
The jets, which landed in central Changhua county, were refuelled and loaded with ammunition before leaving the site.
The drill was the second stage of Taiwan's biggest military drill of the year, codenamed "Han Kuang 23".
Troops mobilised tanks on Penghu island in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, simulating a surprise attack by Chinese airborne units trying to capture the military airport, television images showed.
Taiwanese forces also displayed their strength in a pre-dawn live-fire drill on Kinmen, a fortified island group off the southeastern Chinese city of Xiamen.
Two of the jets that landed in Changhua were carrying US-made medium-range AIM-120 air-to-air missiles for the first time.
Taiwan bought 120 AIM-120s from the United States in 2000, but they were not delivered until 2003.
Beijing had been irked by the US sale of the advanced missiles, which have a range of 50 kilometres (30 miles), as they allow Taiwan's F-16s to attack targets that are beyond their sight line.
In the first phase of the exercise staged last month, a computerised drill showed the island was vulnerable to air attack from its neighbour, Taiwan's defence ministry said.
China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare formal independence.
Cross-strait tensions have increased since independence-minded President Chen Shui-bian took office in 2000, ending the nationalist Kuomintang party's 51-year grip on power.