Army Holds Live-fire Artillery Drills in Pingtung 屏東車城天雷操演 155榴砲實彈射擊

China has announced more military drills in the seas and airspace around Taiwan, a day after the scheduled end of exercises launched in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit. On Aug. 9, Taiwan's Army started live-fire artillery drills at the Manfeng training grounds in Pingtung's Checheng Township. The military said these drills are held annually.

The command is given, and the soldiers fire 155mm self-propelled howitzers that end up accurately hitting the maritime targets. The Army started live-fire artillery drills on Aug. 9 at the Manfeng training grounds in Pingtung's Checheng Township. People wondered if the range of the exercises overlapped with China's ongoing military exercises, and tried to draw associations between the two sets of exercises. The military clarified that there is no relation, and these drills were already scheduled and take place on an annual basis.

Lou Woei-jye, Spokesperson, 8th Army Corps: “The fact that the artillery drills proceeded so smoothly despite the extremely poor weather shows that our regular equipment maintenance is excellent. We are proceeding based on our original plans for conducting the drills. We won't change our training objectives just because the enemy has some maneuvers. Our drills always proceed one step at a time. We need to accumulate military capability bit by bit.”

China has fired several types of anti-aircraft weapons recently. It also announced live-fire drills for three days starting on Aug. 9 in the South China Sea and waters to the east of the three islands off of Zhanjiang. China has recently announced exercises in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and South China Sea. Experts say the large-scale exercises viewed as a blockade of Taiwan are meant not only to compress Taiwan's strategic depth to a minimum, but also to ignore the median line and intrude into Taiwan's territorial waters, sending the message that China doesn't recognize Taiwan's sovereignty.

Chi Le-yi, Member, Quadrennial Defense Review Consulting Team: “Our side will be in a strategic interior line situation. It will be harder for outsiders to intervene. If the U.S. really feels that Taiwan is important and can't be relinquished, then it should help to defend Taiwan. That means the U.S. needs to make some strategic preparations in advance right now.”

Experts warn that Taiwan is located in the strategic interior line, which means it is strategically surrounded by the Chinese military. If hostilities erupt, the biggest problem Taiwan will face is an energy shortage. Experts advise the government to quickly make preparations.

Lin Yu-fang, Group Convener, National Policy Foundation: “We all know that our domestic natural gas reserves will only be enough for 10 to 11 days. If China wants to besiege Taiwan, it will take longer than 10 to 11 days, possibly a month, two months, or three months.”

Joseph Wen, a university student who previously created a map detailing all of China's military bases and installations, said a Cheng Kung-class frigate had faced off against a Chinese warship. The military said the two sides were separated by at least 180 meters, and the frigate's mission was to prevent Chinese warships from crossing the strait's median line. It also said preparations had been made for impact.

一聲令下，官兵操作155榴砲發射火砲，精準命中海上目標，驗證戮力訓練成果，陸軍第四作戰區9號在屏東車城滿豐訓場進行「天雷操演」，近期兩岸情勢緊張，外界關切天雷操演範圍是否跟共軍演訓區重疊，對此，國軍澄清，兩者沒有關聯，這次是早已排定的年度重砲射擊。

陸軍第八軍團主任樓偉傑表示：「其實在這麼惡劣的天候下面，我們的火砲在這次的操演可以這樣順利的進行，也表示我們平常裝備的保養也都做得非常落實，我們都會按照我們原本計畫來持續進行，我們也不會因為敵人有任何的演習狀況，而改變我們的訓練目標，我們的訓練總是一步一步來進行，戰力要一點一點地去累積。」

中共持續強化建軍備戰，近日發射多型防空武器實彈射擊。另外，也宣布從今（9）日開始，一連3天在南海、湛江南三島東部海域進行實彈射擊，盤點共軍近期已陸續宣布，在渤海、黃海、東海、南海都會有軍事活動。軍事專家分析，中共對台進行大規模封鎖軍演，不只將我方戰略縱深壓縮到最小範圍，也無視海峽中線，演習區域涵蓋我領海，等於不承認台灣主權。

四年期國防總檢討諮詢委員亓樂義則表示：「我方會處於一個戰略內線態勢，第二個外面要介入比較困難，（美國）你真要覺得台灣重要不能丟，要協防台灣，你現在就要有一些戰略預儲預置。」

專家示警，台灣處於戰略內線，也就是被共軍戰略包圍的態勢，若爆發戰事，台灣首要面臨最大問題是能源短缺，建議政府提早準備。

對此，國策基金會分組召集人林郁方也說：「那我們都知道，國內現在天然氣的儲藏量大概就是10到11天，中國大陸如果要圍困台灣，不會只有10到11天，可能一個月、兩個月、三個月。」

此外，曾自製中共政軍設施地圖的大學生溫約瑟，揭露我國成功級軍艦官兵，紀錄與共軍軍艦對峙過程，官兵表示，雙方一度距離最近只有180公尺，成功艦任務是防止共艦進入海峽中線，還強調做好撞擊的準備。