Taiwan to stage five days of combat readiness drills
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- Taiwan's defence ministry announced Sunday that the "Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise" will run Monday through Friday as part of the armed forces' annual joint operations training.
- The drill reflects a doctrinal shift from set-piece events to realistic exercises, with some scenarios simulating China suddenly converting a routine exercise around the island into an actual attack.
- Taiwan's military will conduct the exercise "with actual troops, on actual terrain, in real time, using actual equipment, and through actual implementation," the ministry said, emphasizing rapid peacetime-to-wartime transition.
- China dispatched 21 aircraft, including J-16 fighters, KJ-500 airborne early warning and control planes, and Y-20 aerial refueling aircraft, in a "combat readiness patrol" near Taiwan on Sunday, according to the ministry.
- Nineteen of the Chinese aircraft entered airspace southwest of Taiwan and the Western Pacific for "long-distance training over open seas," Taipei said.
- Taiwan fired its new U.S.-made HIMARS rocket system into the Taiwan Strait earlier this month; its main annual Han Kuang war games are expected in August.
Why it matters: Taiwan is encoding a specific Chinese playbook into its training — the scenario where a routine PLA exercise flips into a real attack — meaning its units are now rehearsing the exact transition that Beijing's own military writings describe. With 21 PLA aircraft including AWACS and refueling planes sent the same day, the drill launches under live operational observation rather than a clean training calendar.
