First Time Participation for Taiwan's F-16V Jets in Annual Military Drill

Taiwan's F-16 fighter jets, upgraded to F-16V standard in 2021 participated for the first time in the island's annual military drills intended to simulate an invasion by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The Ministry of National Defense’s Joint Operations Command Center, ordered F-16V jets from Hualien Air Force Base to conduct emergency takeoffs in batches from 5:30am yesterday to defend the airspace along the east coast.
Some fighter jets based in western Taiwan were dispatched to Hualien as part of a simulation in which most of the nation’s military bases in the west were “destroyed.”
C-130 transport aircraft were used to take military personnel responsible for fighter jet maintenance, together with equipment and supplies, to designated locations in eastern Taiwan.
Naval vessels also set sail and troops practiced defense tactics as if they were being attacked by enemy planes or missiles.
The live-fire exercises are divided into three parts — the military is to practice conserving its forces and air defense over the first two days, joint interception on the third day and joint territory defense on the last two days.
China flies armed drones, J-11 Fighter jets near Taiwan
A TB-001 armed reconnaissance drone of the PLA flew across the Miyako Strait and to the eastern side of the island of Taiwan, according to a press release by Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff. Also on Monday, a Y-8 reconnaissance plane and a J-11 fighter jet of the PLA entered Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone, Taiwan's defense authority announced in a press release.