By Jia Feimao | 2025-11-13

Taiwanese troops from multiple service branches sharpened their skills in extensive drills throughout October and November.

The army ran a seven-day, six-night, brigade-level force-on-force drill in late October, integrating the US-made Team Awareness Kit (TAK) for the first time across an entire exercise to sharpen ground command, control and combat responsiveness. Exercise Lu Sheng No. 1 used real troops, terrain and equipment; featured more than 200km of cross-area maneuver and highlighted technology integration.

The Army Education, Training and Doctrine Development Command directed the drill, army headquarters said. In it, the 542nd Armored Brigade faced the 234th Mechanized Infantry Brigade in central Taiwan and conducted offensive and defensive operations as well as pursuit and delay operations.

The army fully deployed TAK and fused live video and surveillance feeds into a common operational picture. Doing so allowed commanders to track unit locations and progress on task fulfillment in real time, according to Taiwan's Military News Agency.

1st use in combat simulation

The US Department of Defense developed TAK, and Taiwan's army used it before in disaster relief, Su Tzu-yun, a defense researcher at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, told Focus. This drill marked its first use by Taiwan in a combat simulation exercise.

"The system enables ground units to integrate battlefield information quickly and at low cost for precise awareness of enemy activity and agile decision-making," he added.

Drones played a more central role than in past iterations, supporting real-time reconnaissance and target marking to tighten the recon-to-fires link. Nighttime, long-distance and high-tempo movements pushed troops to a combat-like pace and tested commanders' ability to adapt on the move.

President Lai Ching-te inspected the exercise on October 28. The drill combined unmanned systems and TAK to build a complete "kill chain" from reconnaissance and command to strike, he said. It also validated cross-service deployment -- evidence of modernization and joint war-fighting capacity.

TAK, maintained by the US TAK Product Center, is available in military, government and civilian variants. US defense and public safety agencies use it widely.

Naval and air force drills

Other branches of the Taiwanese military trained in October and November. They included the navy, coast guard, marines and air force.

At sea, the navy held its annual Hai Chiang readiness drills in mid-October, practicing "joint interception, damage control, onboard firefighting, tactical formations, aerial replenishment" and live-fire events, the Taipei Times reported.

In the exercise, authorities put the Coast Guard Administration's Anping-class vessels under naval command to test wartime transition protocols, though without live fire. The maritime drills validated defensive mine-laying and antisubmarine missions, according to Taiwanese media.

The marines ran a live-fire exercise near Kaohsiung in early November, emphasizing joint anti-landing and beachhead defense phases. Units integrated TAK with surveillance drones to gain a common operational picture.

The drill "strengthened rapid response capabilities and enhanced commanders' real-time decision-making, fire coordination, and joint defense integration," Taiwan News reported November 6.

The air force ran its late-October Tien Lung drill to validate joint combat effectiveness at higher intensity. The Defense Ministry listed the army's Lu Sheng No. 1 (October 25–31) and the air force's Tien Lung (October 27–31) alongside the navy's October schedule, underscoring a broader push toward information integration and cross-domain coordination.

Lessons learned

Lu Sheng No. 1 marks real progress in Army training, Su told Central News Agency. The drill shifted exercise control to a specialized oversight team and added blank-ammunition drills and integrated air-ground operations. He said the framework is meant to anchor a more rigorous, data-driven exercise regimen.