Taiwan army calls off Lu Sheng 2 brigade war game a day early as Typhoon Champi nears

Taiwan's army has cut its Lu Sheng 2 brigade exercise short by about a day, ordering the drill to stop at 10:00 local time on Thursday, 22 October, so that the units taking part can get ready for Typhoon Champi. The decision was announced in a press release that morning by the Army Education, Training and Doctrine Development Command, which runs the exercise.

Lu Sheng 2 had been scheduled to run from 14 to 23 October as ten days and nine nights of continuous force-on-force fighting between two combined-arms brigades, the 269th and the 564th. When the stop order came, the exercise had been under way for nine days, according to CNA.

In its statement, the command said the Central Weather Administration expected to issue a land warning for the storm at around midday, and that the main training subjects of the exercise had already been completed. Ending the drill early, it said, would give the troops time to prepare for the typhoon. Once back at their bases, the units are to carry out storm preparations and pre-position forces so that they can be sent into rescue and relief work if needed.

China Times set out how the exercise was designed. The 564th Brigade started in the south and pushed north in a manoeuvre campaign, while the 269th Brigade held a defence in western Taiwan. Umpires could switch the attacking and defending roles depending on the tactics each side used and how the referees scored them. The subjects tested included brigade and battalion command, coordination of fire support, defence in successive lines, combined ground and air operations, and the use of drones and special forces.

The exercise directors had not always planned to stop early. On the afternoon of 21 October, United Daily News reported that the two sides were facing each other across the Touqian River at Nanliao in Hsinchu, with the 269th preparing counter-attacks, and that the umpire headquarters had no plan at that point to end the drill because of the weather.

By that evening the same paper, citing unnamed sources, reported that the umpire headquarters in Taichung had changed course. Northern Taiwan was already seeing wind and rain, and the 269th Brigade, which is based in the north, carries a standby duty for disaster relief. The report said the decision would be announced as early as the morning of 22 October, which is what happened.

Accounts of where the fighting stood at the end differ. China Times said that on day nine the two brigades were still engaged around Taoyuan. United Daily News placed the front further south, reporting that self-propelled howitzers of the 564th had been seen leaving their positions and moving south, and that a tank company of the 269th equipped with M1A2T Abrams tanks had counter-attacked south of the Touqian River towards Xiangshan, a move it said umpires judged successful. On that account, the attacking brigade never reached the Taoyuan and Zhongli plain. The army has not published an official assessment of the result.

The early finish was presented as a weather decision rather than a verdict on the exercise. It also shows how quickly Taiwan's army is expected to move from wartime training to disaster duty: brigades that were fighting a simulated war on Wednesday are being turned into typhoon relief forces by Thursday.