TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese special forces are calling out commands in English for speed and efficiency amid training exercises.

The army’s Fifth Battalion Special Operations force is currently midway through an 18-day long "Tactical Mission Training.” The exercise covers a distance of 456 km across four cities and counties (namely New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli), per a CNA report.

So far the troops have gone on three nighttime marches, traversing 20 km each time. More than half the training has been done in windy, wet conditions.

A military source told CNA in recent days that Taiwan’s special ops have also engaged with U.S. forces for many years, and have adopted many features of their military. One example is that the size and style of the U.S. Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) – the primary fighting unit of the green berets – has been implemented into Taiwan’s own special operations unit.

In the current training the special forces are doing, which revolves around raiding hidden ambush nests and conducting special recon missions, Taiwan’s officers and soldiers are all using English military terms to communicate.

An army spokesperson told CNA it is easier and faster to give orders in abbreviated English (for example, “SUT” for “Small Unit Tactics”) than in Chinese. This enables rapid completion of missions.