The latest People’s Liberation Army drills around Taiwan may have been testing how to wear down the island’s air defences using rockets that are “cheap enough to be used in large quantities”, military observers said.
On Tuesday, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command wrapped up a two-day live-fire exercise named Justice Mission 2025.
The exercise surrounded large parts of the island and came less than a fortnight after the United States approved a US$11.1 billion weapons package for Taiwan – the largest in the island’s history of receiving US military aid.
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The drill involved personnel from the army, navy, air force and rocket force, with stealth fighters, destroyers and missile launchers all featuring.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said 31 warships and 16 coastguard vessels were detected in the area over the course of the exercise, while PLA planes made a total of 207 sorties – more than the 135 detected during a two-day exercise in April and the 153 recorded in a one-day drill in October 2024.
Of those flights, 125 crossed the unofficial median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the island’s air defence identification zone.