Taiwan's military deployed mobile Hsiung Feng anti-ship missile launchers to the Penghu Islands for the first time on August 9, the fifth day of the island's 42nd Han Kuang live-fire exercise — a move that extends Taiwan's coastal strike reach to the geographic center of the Taiwan Strait.
The exercise has progressed to its joint counter-landing phase, during which simulated opposing forces attempt an amphibious assault on Taiwan. The Navy's Littoral Combat Command — a new headquarters established on July 1, 2026 to consolidate anti-ship missile brigades and coastal assets under a single command, and being formally evaluated in a major exercise for the first time — dispatched mobile launcher vehicles armed with Hsiung Feng II and Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missiles to the archipelago. Crews drilled on rapidly reaching tactical firing positions after receiving orders, then executing joint fire strikes to verify coordination between coastal and naval elements.
Penghu's Position Commands Both Sides of the Strait
Sitting at the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait, Penghu gives missile batteries a rare dual-coverage advantage. Launchers based there can engage People's Liberation Army Navy vessels approaching from either direction — ships closing on Taiwan from the east, or those still in western Strait waters near China's coastline. With PLA warships maintaining a near-constant harassment presence around Taiwan, the island group's central position transforms it into a two-front firing platform.
Penghu's strategic profile has grown quietly in recent years. The archipelago has seen the addition of long-range artillery systems and, according to Taiwanese media reports, the stationing of American personnel whose presence Taipei does not officially acknowledge. The deployment of Hsiung Feng mobile launchers deepens that layering, reflecting what Taiwan's defense establishment calls a "land-based sea control" approach — using shore-launched anti-ship missiles to compensate for numerical disadvantage against PLA surface fleets.
Taiwan's Hsiung Feng II and III Are Built for Sea Control
Both missiles deployed to Penghu were developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan's state defense research agency. The Hsiung Feng II is a high-subsonic, sea-skimming cruise missile engineered to fly low enough to defeat radar detection until it is already within striking range. The Hsiung Feng III is a supersonic weapon sometimes described as a "carrier killer," capable of compressing an adversary's response time to mere seconds at terminal speed.
Under normal operations, both systems rotate between mobile launcher vehicles and surface warships deployed across key sea zones, performing multi-layered interception and sea control missions. Their forward presence in Penghu during Han Kuang 42 is the first time either has been positioned at that distance from Taiwan's main island in a live exercise — a signal of where Taipei now believes Taiwan's maritime defensive perimeter must begin. （Related： Beijing Watch | PLA Scholars Find More to Fear in Taiwan's Han Kuang Drills ｜ Latest ）
