Taiwan's Army 10th Corps brought heavy artillery onto the sandy shores of the Dajia River estuary in Taichung on Thursday, conducting live-fire exercises under driving morning rain in one of the most operationally realistic drills the site has seen in years.
Compressed Timeline, Unfamiliar Ground
Designated the "115th Year Heavy Artillery Live-Fire and New Weapon Validation Training," the exercise deployed Thunderbolt-2000 multiple rocket launchers and M109A2 self-propelled howitzers directly onto beach terrain — a setting rarely used for such systems. A total of 372 rounds across six munition types were fired simultaneously from eight positions along a 20-kilometer front.
Major Liao Neng-cheng (廖能政), commander of the rocket company under the 58th Artillery Command, said the unit arrived at its firing position just one day before the exercise — a sharp departure from standard practice, which typically allows a full week for pre-positioning. The compressed timeline was intentional, he said, designed to replicate the tempo of real combat.
Simulating an Amphibious Assault
The drill was structured in phases to mirror a layered defensive response to a coastal landing. Thunderbolt-2000 rocket systems opened by striking a simulated enemy beach force at Baishaton. M109A2 and M110A2 self-propelled guns, together with 155mm howitzers, then engaged targets at Jianan Beach to suppress and attrit the notional adversary. TOW missile vehicles and 120mm mortars followed to maintain pressure against forces simulating a breakthrough of the initial defensive line.
According to the military, the exercise was intended to validate combined fire effectiveness and kill-chain performance by simulating the delay and degradation of an amphibious assault along the Dajia coastline.
Sandy Terrain Adds Engineering Challenge
Liao noted that the beach environment itself posed a distinct technical problem. Standard training grounds offer hard-packed surfaces, but soft sand requires additional soft-ground base plates beneath each artillery piece to maintain firing stability — adding to setup time and crew workload.
In conventional combat planning, he explained, hard terrain is generally preferred for artillery positioning, and soft ground is typically avoided. Thursday's exercise deliberately reversed that assumption, aiming to expand the unit's ability to operate effectively across a wider range of environments.
First Return to the Site in Several Years
The Dajia estuary was last used for live-fire training in 2019 and 2020. Thursday's exercise marked the first return to the location in several years.
