Photo: Wikimedia Commons – Office of the President, Republic of China (Taiwan)
What is happening?
Taiwan launched the most expansive and longest-running edition of its annual Han Kuang military exercise (漢光演習) on July 9, 2025, spanning 10 days and involving over 22,000 troops—both active and reserve. These drills are designed to simulate full-spectrum defense scenarios, ranging from responses to gray‑zone harassment to efforts countering large-scale amphibious invasions.
The initial days have sharpened focus on countering “gray‑zone” Chinese maneuvers—such as maritime militia and coast guard provocations—around Taiwan’s offshore islands. From July 13 to 18, the drills escalate into live-fire, anti-landing, beachhead defense, and prolonged urban combat scenarios, including resilience against cyberattacks, information operations, and disruptions of communication networks.
What is the broader picture?
This year’s heavy emphasis on urban warfare in the Han Kuang exercise reveals Taipei’s strategic calculation that any future conflict could extend well into the densely populated cities of the island. Recent wargames and intelligence assessments suggest that forces of the People’s Liberation Army might try to seize critical urban centers swiftly to force political concessions. Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) is therefore investing significant resources into training for block-by-block defense, guerrilla-style tactics, and utilizing civilian infrastructure for logistics and concealment. Civilian drills in major cities further signal a shift from purely conventional battlefield preparations to a total defense mindset that blends military and civil resilience.
On the technological front, Taiwan is leveraging both foreign acquisitions and local innovation to enhance its deterrence capabilities. Apart from the U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems, the military unveiled for the first time domestically developed man-portable loitering munitions, designed to target enemy landing craft or armored vehicles at short notice. Taiwan has also showcased improvements in the Thunderbolt 2000 launchers, developed locally and capable of engaging targets on China’s Fujian coastline up to 300 kilometers away, as well as extended ranges for Sky Sword II surface-to-air missiles. Additionally, the integration of drone swarms for reconnaissance and potential kamikaze missions has been demonstrated. Notably, Taiwan’s Army revealed new shoulder-fired spike missiles—previously undisclosed—which offer infantry units flexible anti-armor and anti-personnel capabilities in urban environments.
MOD emphasizes that these unscripted exercises mirror real-world complexities, with rotating command centers and rapid-response unit deployments. President William Lai (賴清德) personally observed live-fire sessions featuring Abrams tanks in Hsinchu and articulated that Taiwan is confronting a “war without gun smoke” (沒有硝煙的戰爭)—a reference to a new era of hybrid threats.
In response, Beijing has escalated military pressure—logging repeated PLA air and naval sorties during the drills—while condemning Han Kuang as political theater and imposing export controls on eight Taiwanese defense-linked firms.
Why is it important?
Collectively, these innovations in implementation of this year’s Han Kuang exercise reflect a defense strategy increasingly shaped by the realistic possibility of a protracted, multi-domain conflict—and an understanding that future battles may be fought not only at sea or along Taiwan’s shores, but in the streets, skies, and cyberspace of its cities.
It is also essential to read this year’s Han Kuang exercise through the lens of Taipei’s relations with Washington. While the island democracy has heavily relied on the U.S. for its defense needs, the isolationist and transactional tendencies of the Trump 2.0 administration cast doubt on the reliability of Americans as Taiwan’s partners.
Despite the uncertainty, this year’s drills underscore the security synergies between Taiwan and the United States. While American troops are not publicly participating on Taiwanese soil, multiple reports confirm that U.S. advisors are providing behind-the-scenes guidance, especially in planning and operational concepts for countering amphibious assaults and missile strikes. The integration of U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems and joint discussions on employing Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) principles reflect how Taiwan’s defense posture is increasingly aligned with U.S. doctrine. According to Taiwanese military officials, the U.S. has shared combat simulation models to help refine Taiwan’s readiness for rapid force deployment and distributed operations in the event of a potential blockade or invasion scenario.