Taiwan's Army has launched its largest annual brigade-level live-troop confrontation exercise, with a marked increase in intensity — positive news for raising the forces' combat readiness.

• The "Lu Sheng No. 2" exercise runs from the 14th to the 23rd, with the northern 269th Combined Arms Brigade and the southern 564th Combined Arms Brigade committing maximum strength to 10 days and 9 nights of uninterrupted confrontation.
• For the first time this year, the drill incorporates M1A2T tanks, the Taiwan Tactical Network and OneWeb satellite communications, and includes practice in drone attack and defence.
• In the initial phase the 564th Brigade attacks northward while the 269th Brigade defends; the attacking and defending roles are then swapped based on an assessment of the results, so both forces practise both offence and defence.
• Last year the Army scrapped older-format exercises such as "Chang Tai" and "Chang Ching," handing sole responsibility to the Army Education and Training Command and reinstating firepower-value calculations to make the adjudication of wins and losses more objective.
• With Beijing keeping up military pressure on Taiwan, unscripted confrontations of this kind can expose real gaps in firepower coordination, target detection and logistics.

Outlook: The post-exercise review will focus on drone employment and counter-reconnaissance strike capability, with a view to filling current gaps in combat power.