Taiwan's Military Test-Fires Land Sword II Surface-to-Air Missiles

Taiwan’s military is testing dozens of newly purchased missiles as part of an annual exercise, including the Land Sword II surface-to-air missile.

Transcript

00:00For the second day in a row, Taiwan's military is conducting annual live-fire missile drills

00:07in a base in Pingdong County here in the country's south. Now for this part of the

00:11exercise, the military is firing the domestically made a land sword missile,

00:15which is part of the country's overall air defense strategy.

00:18This is only the second time these missiles have been tested as they're a new addition

00:25to Taiwan's arsenal. Soldiers here are simulating an enemy aircraft flying too close to the country.

00:31The military originally wanted to use these orange drones to help spot the targets,

00:36but they grounded them due to strong winds. But officials here say the most important thing

00:40is that they still managed to hit all of their targets.

00:55These missiles which can fit on the back of a truck are part of Taiwan's push to diversify

01:02its weapons capacity. The land sword uses missiles that can be attached to fighter jets,

01:07and soldiers say they're getting better at using this new equipment.

01:10As part of these two-day drills, Taiwan also made history by fighting the

01:40U.S.-made HIMARS for the first time, launching more than 30 missiles in the landmark test.

01:47With both the HIMARS and the land sword systems now in the military's arsenal, Taiwan says

01:53it's on track to continue modernizing its forces.

01:57Officials here say that these tests are not only a great opportunity to test some of the

02:00older missiles that are approaching their expiration date, but it's also a chance to test new weapons

02:05and figure out any ways to improve them.

02:06Fu Ha Hong and Jaime Okan in Pingdong for Taiwan Plus.

02:09Fu Ha Hong and Jaime Okan in Ping-Ried

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