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Taiwan Mirage Jets Practice Rapid Rearming Near China
Taiwan's Hsinchu Air Base, closest to China, drills runway repair and Mirage rearming. Analyst says base could be inoperable in first 24 hours of an assault.
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Taiwan's air force on Friday held drills at Hsinchu Air Base, the closest airfield to mainland China, to practice runway repair and jet rearming after a simulated Chinese missile attack. The exercises are part of the annual Han Kuang exercises, which began Wednesday and run for 10 days and 9 nights. This year's edition shifted from a choreographed format to an unscripted one, testing units' reactions.
At Hsinchu, ground crews used bulldozers and graders to clear debris and fill a crater in the runway. Troops then deployed a fiberglass mat to allow fighter jets to land. The base is home to Taiwan's 53 Dassault Mirage 2000-5s, fourth-generation fighters that serve as the island's primary interceptors. The Mirages were rearmed with Magic Missile II short-range and MICA medium-range air-to-air missiles, and two Mirages scrambled for an emergency takeoff.