Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Sunday that the armed forces will hold a five-day combat readiness drill this week, according to Reuters. The exercise, called the “Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise,” will run from Monday through Friday. The ministry described it as part of the military’s annual joint operations training.
The drill is partly built around a scenario in which China abruptly converts one of its routine exercises into an actual attack on the island, Reuters reported. Taiwan’s military has incorporated that possibility into its training in recent years as Beijing has increased the frequency and scale of activity near the island.
“The main objective is to train units at all levels to become familiar with combat practices and the battlefield environment during the readiness deployment phase, and to strengthen rapid peacetime-to-wartime transition and priority deployment actions,” the defence ministry said in its statement, as cited by Reuters.
The ministry said the exercise will be conducted with actual troops, on actual terrain, in real time, using actual equipment, and through actual implementation. It said the drill is designed to sharpen command mechanisms at all levels and improve troops’ combat-oriented capabilities, with particular focus on joint operations command and control and logistical sustainment.
According to sources cited by the Taipei Times, the five-day drill is the first of three stages building toward Taiwan’s largest annual exercise. A one-week “joint defense exercise” is scheduled to begin on July 13, serving as a rehearsal for the main event. The Han Kuang Exercise No. 42, Taiwan’s flagship live-fire war games, is expected to begin on Aug. 5 and will run alongside civil defense and reserve mobilization drills, the sources said.
The joint defense exercise in July will be based on the military’s existing joint operations plans and will involve live, dynamic troop deployments, the defence ministry has said. It is intended to test coordination between the army, navy and air force as they move through different stages of an operation, with drills carried out in relevant operational areas, according to the sources.
Analysts described the July exercise as a warm-up for the August live-fire drills, the Taipei Times reported.
The ministry’s February announcement of a revised annual training schedule reorganized Taiwan’s military planning into a two-phase framework, replacing a previous three-stage structure, according to the sources. The new framework separates a routine combat readiness period from a defense operations period. New alert levels have been introduced within the readiness phase, including combat preparation deployment, second-level enhanced readiness and first-level heightened alert, the sources said.
Within the defense operations phase, the revised plan covers joint counter-landing and coastal strike operations, beachhead combat, and deep defense and sustained operations, according to the same sources. The changes are intended to prepare Taiwan’s forces for scenarios in which Chinese military activity shifts without warning from training to exercises, or from exercises to actual combat, the sources said.
The restructuring follows what sources described as the People’s Liberation Army’s growing use of aircraft and naval deployments, combined with joint operations involving the China Coast Guard. These activities are commonly referred to as “gray zone” tactics intended to blur the line between peacetime and wartime conditions, according to the Taipei Times report.
Regional impact:
Taiwan’s defence ministry and military analysts cited by the Taipei Times have framed the restructured drill schedule as a direct response to Chinese military activity around the island, including expanded aircraft and naval movements. Taiwan regularly conducts drills throughout the year; earlier this month its forces test-fired the U.S.-made HIMARS rocket system into the Taiwan Strait, a weapons system also used extensively by Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Background:
Taiwan holds annual readiness exercises each summer and autumn, the period it considers peak season for military training. Its main annual war games, known as Han Kuang, have in recent years undergone format changes, including the removal of designated opposing-force scenarios and an extension of the main exercise to ten days and nine nights. The defence ministry overhauled its broader annual training calendar in February 2026. China has conducted repeated large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in recent years, including operations Beijing has described as warnings against “Taiwan independence” and “external interference.”
What happens next:
The Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise is scheduled to run from Monday, June 22, through Friday, June 26. A one-week joint defense exercise is set to begin on July 13 as a rehearsal phase. Han Kuang Exercise No. 42, Taiwan’s principal annual live-fire war games, is scheduled to start on Aug. 5 and will be conducted alongside civil defense and reserve mobilization drills, according to sources cited by the Taipei Times.
