Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) reported the Han Kuang Exercise 41 results in the Legislature on Monday, verifying the effectiveness of reserve combat mobilization in 412 successful joint operations.
The 41st Han Kuang Exercises marked the first time the duration was extended to 10 days to cover the various possible actions of the PLA invading Taiwan and the responses of all three branches of the armed forces. More than 22,000 officers and soldiers participated in the training. New additions, such as a strengthened "gray zone response" and accelerated key point blocking, tested the legitimacy of the command headquarters at all levels and combat readiness deployment.
Defense Minister Koo explained in an interview, “We found that returning soldiers to their original positions took less time, so we will continue to use this method in the future. Whether we are mobilizing or expanding mobilization, utilizing pre-war training in this way will be more efficient, so that we can restore combat effectiveness more quickly.”
Koo also spoke on the public concern over eight military-civilian vehicle disputes that occurred during the exercises, emphasizing that since operations were conducted in a “real soldier, real field, real time, and real equipment” manner, accidents could not be avoided. However, he did say that the accidents are covered by insurance and will be used to improve subsequent troop training.