JIUPENG, Taiwan: Taiwan showed off its missile firepower on Tuesday (Aug 20), launching a battery of surface-to-air missiles in front of reporters during a visit to a sensitive test site on a remote part of the island’s southeastern coast.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained of stepped up Chinese military activity as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims, and Taipei has been strengthening its deterrence abilities.
Missiles are a key part of Taiwan’s defence strategy, both US-made and domestically-developed.
At the Jiupeng base in Taiwan’s Pingtung County, the military test fired both US-made Patriot and Taiwan-made Sky Bow III missiles into the skies as dawn broke, while a warship off the coast fired a RIM-66 Standard missiles.
