Bingong Province, Taiwan-under Storm Monitoring, three Moboura missile launchers from the United States, the United States, were driven forward at a military base in Taiwan, and prepared for the first test that must be life on Beijing Island, demanding it.
3, 2, 1 … Launch, “a military officer in Taiwan returns to loudspeakers. Then a total of 33 rockets were launched towards the Pacific Ocean, in the opposite direction of the Chinese main land. Made of a loud voice, each erupted in gunshots of flame and white smoke late in the air.
The historical test of a high -movement artillery system, or HIMARS, was done this month in an unknown location in Pington County, on the southern end of Taiwan, where Taipei rushes to reform the army and supports President Donald Trump amid increasing military threats from China.
The missile system may be extremely important if Taiwan was attacked by Beijing, which has not ruled out the use of force in the inclusion of self -government democracy.
It was manufactured by the US defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, the Heimar Mobile launcher with missiles directed to a group of about 185 miles – enough to reach the coastal targets in the southern Chinese province of Fujian on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.
It is the same missile system that Ukrainian forces use to target Russian positions – despite Ukraine, Taiwan paid the United States with more than a billion dollars of weapons.
Al -Jazeera 11 of 29 of the HIMARS bombers that it bought, where the rest is expected to arrive before the appointment next year.
Although the United States has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which rejects the demands of Beijing, it is the largest arms resource on the island. Billions of dollars in weapons with the United States in Taiwan have helped build unlike aircraft such as drones, missiles and aircraft aircraft that were promoted.
With China intensifying military pressure and other pressure, Taiwan also extended compulsory military service to one year of four months, and doubled the mandatory annual training for reserve equipment to two weeks, and pledged to increase its defense budget to more than 3 % of GDP.
Sun Li Feng, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense in Taiwan, said while the United States remains a “very important” strategic partner, Tibet “is fully aware of” the need to enhance its defensive capabilities.
He said: “The guarantee of Taiwan’s security is our top responsibility and our maximum.” “We take this very seriously.”
Sun, but it is difficult for Taiwan to build a modern combat force, in the face of “incompatible” threats from China, which number 2.8 million people. More than 18 times larger From the number of Taiwan from active service personnel.
In the year that Taiwan Lay Cheng Tim took his post, China has held several rounds of wide military exercises warned by Adhamir C. Babaro, the head of the Indian leadership and the American Pacific, of this month, is not a training but “training”.
The Chinese army also sends warplanes and ships towards Taiwan on the mutations of nearly daily, and in the last days amphibious landing exercises were held in the Taiwan Strait.
Sun said that to deal with such “concrete and real” threats, it is “important” that the United States and Taiwan continue their military cooperation.
In addition to Himars, the United States and Taiwan advanced their cooperation through the intelligence -sharing deal that Sun called “the game change”.
“Usually we do not enter into details because intelligence and information sharing is sensitive,” Sun said in the first general comments of his government on this topic.
“However, this type of intelligence exchange is very useful for us in understanding threats from the enemy and making appropriate defensive publishing.”
In the certificate of Congress this month, the American Admiral also publicly admitted that there were about 500 American military personnel stationed in Taiwan, and more than 10 times the number that was previously disclosed.
Although it is working with the United States, Taiwan is not sure of the security commitment from Washington, which has long maintained the policy of “strategic mystery” when it comes to whether the American forces will defend the island against a Chinese attack.
More confusion on the image is the comments made by Trump about Taiwan, the world leader in manufacturing advanced semiconductors, “stealing” chips from the United States and not paying enough for her defense.
Taipei officials were also shaken by the collapse of American support for Ukraine in addition to threatening the sharp tariffs on Taiwan exports, which Trump identified by 32 % in addition to the base line by 10 %.
“You have different sounds that come out of the United States, so that it creates more uncertainty for the Taiwanese,” said Andrew Yang, former National Defense Minister of Taiwan. “What are the sounds or novels that we should listen to?”
Reserve soldier Jason Chu, 30, said that among him, there was a “increasing” sense of responsibility to defend Taiwan.
“The biggest difference lies in our mindset,” said Zhu, an engineer. He said that while many people in Taiwan are more likely to think about training them as a duty at first, they often begin to think about it as protecting their country.
People in Taiwan watched anxiously as the war on Ukraine, another democracy targeted by a larger neighbor – some of which went to join the battle against Russia.
Tony Lu went to Ukraine in 2022 first as a volunteer, then as a fighter. He said he believed that people in Taiwan need to be prepared.
He said, “Nobody wants war – I don’t want it either.” “But we have no choice.”
