Taiwan's army puts live fire in home defence zones at the core of its 2027 training plan

Taiwan's army commander, General Lu Kun-hsiu, has made realistic, combat-oriented training the central theme of the service's training programme for 2027, telling senior officers at the army's annual training review on 10 November that reforms must move quickly and with clear direction, the military's Youth Daily News reported. The Liberty Times carried an account of the meeting on 11 November, drawing on the army and the military newspaper.

The training work review conference was held at the army's Dahan camp and brought together senior staff officers of Army Command Headquarters, department heads, commanders at brigade level and above, and senior non-commissioned advisers. Lu told them that, with the enemy threat serious, officers at every level must understand the defence operations guidance of Chief of the General Staff Mei Chia-shu and the current direction of defence policy, and should abandon path-dependent thinking when reviewing their own work.

After awards for units and individuals with strong training records in 2026, staff offices briefed the meeting on how forces should be employed in defence operations, on training results for 2026, on the training plan for 2027, and on a review of the new model for base training evaluations. The briefings covered unit training, base training, joint exercises with the other services, drone training, reserve force training, and training safety and inspection, with the stated aim of giving commanders a common picture of the fight.

A separate briefing looked at live-fire training in 2026 and plans for 2027. Each operational zone command analysed its firing results, the new training ranges it has opened inside its own operational area, and its plans for joint fires exercises.

Lu said the main thrust of the reform was to give units the readiness to deploy immediately. He told the zone commands to keep holding live-fire training inside their own areas of responsibility, tied to the threat they face and to their combat tasks, and to bring a wider range of new weapons and equipment into that training so that rank-and-file troops understand their missions and roles.

On safety, Lu instructed officers to complete preparations and issue safety rules before any high-risk training event, and to use past accidents in instruction so that similar cases are not repeated.

The meeting also watched a video reviewing the army's work in 2026 on recruit and garrison training, branch education, uncrewed systems, heavy artillery and precision missile firing, and joint exercises. Lu said manpower is the foundation of combat power and the source of the people who operate high-technology weapons. He urged commanders to use sound leadership to attract capable recruits and strengthen front-line units, and closed by asking officers to follow a guideline of new training, new thinking, new equipment and new technology.

Neither account gave a budget for the 2027 training programme, the number or location of the new ranges, or dates for specific exercises, and the army has not published details of the revised base training evaluation model discussed at the meeting.