China has recently ramped up its military activity around Taiwan, sending ships and planes to the area around the island. But, Taiwan isn’t backing down. It’s putting on its own military drills in defiance of Beijing’s threats. Most recently, the Taiwan army’s aviation special forces demonstrated their combat abilities in southern Taiwan’s Pingtung County.
An Apache helicopter hovers over the air and fires 560 rounds out of its 30mm cannon into the side of a mountain. Once it’s finished, another helicopter comes around and takes its turn at target practice. Each Apache peels off and circles back again for another run, this time firing rockets. Here, firepower and finesse are on full display. This is a demonstration of the Army’s aviation special forces’ capabilities.
Once the Apaches back off, Black Hawk helicopters equipped with machine guns come in and show their stuff.
This exercise kicked off on Wednesday in Taiwan’s southernmost county, Pingtung. It’s meant to strengthen and show the aviation special forces’ prowess in air-to-ground combat. Specifically, its objective was to demonstrate the mobility and precision of Taiwan’s aerial hardware.
A total of six Apache attack helicopters and two Black Hawks participated in the exercise.
Eager observers watched the event from the sidelines. One man says the exercise helped him feel confident about Taiwan’s defenses. Another says this is what a military is supposed to do.
With China putting on military exercises at Taiwan’s front door, someone has to keep the people at ease. In this case, that “someone” is the army’s aviation special forces.