TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The live-fire component of the Han Kuang 41 military exercises has been extended to 10 days from July 9 to 18.
Major General Tung Chi-hsing (董冀星), director of the Ministry of National Defense's joint operations planning division, said the drills will integrate Army, Navy, and Air Force units in a continuous day-and-night schedule, per CNA. The exercises are based on joint operational plans and aim to evaluate commanders’ decision-making capabilities, staff planning performance, and execution of joint operations across tactical levels.
Tung said the drills are divided into three phases: gray zone harassment response, contingency operations, and full-scale combat.
The drills will progress through various stages, including peace-to-war transition, combat readiness deployment, joint anti-landing operations, coastal and beach battles, defense in depth, and prolonged warfare. These stages simulate a defensive military campaign and civil-military integration efforts.
From July 9 to 11, the exercise will focus on gray zone responses. On July 12, the drills will shift to contingency operations involving readiness deployments.
The full-scale combat phase will run from July 13 to 18. This includes joint anti-landing operations on July 13, coastal and beachhead combat on July 14, in-depth defense from July 15 to 16, and prolonged warfare from July 17 to 18.
Tung said the extension from five days to ten was due to a change in exercise design. Previously, Han Kuang scenarios focused on emergency and homeland defense phases and were conducted with an accelerated combat-to-exercise tempo to simulate engagements quickly.
The new format begins even earlier in the conflict timeline, simulating gray zone provocations and allowing each phase to be played out in full without compressing timelines.
Tung said the military has identified six categories of Chinese gray zone activities, ranging from legal warfare to deception, attrition, and provocation.
The military has developed counterstrategies, starting with immediate readiness drills. Regular forces will carry out various preparedness tasks to respond to these threats.
Regarding the exercise’s focus, Tung said lessons from last year prompted continued evaluation of decentralized operations, logistics, interoperability, and rules of engagement. Improvements will also target rapid decision-making, joint coordination, resilient backups, realistic simulations, mobilization recovery, civil-military integration, command authority, and legal support.
Due to typhoon disruptions in the previous two years, Tung said that if two or more counties or cities within a theater of operations are affected by a typhoon or earthquake, that theater’s drills will be suspended for disaster relief. If two or more theaters, including offshore islands, are impacted, the entire Han Kuang exercise will be canceled.
Any suspended drills will then be rescheduled or incorporated into subsequent training or monthly combat preparedness training.
