WireAugust 10, 2026 at 5:33 AM
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TAIPEI — Taiwan's Air Force exercised emergency runway repair procedures and fast-reaction interceptor launches at Hsinchu Air Base on Friday, the island's closest military airfield to the Chinese mainland, as part of the ongoing Han Kuang military drills. The maneuvers are designed to sustain air-to-air combat capability in the opening hours of a hypothetical assault by the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Hsinchu, situated roughly 90 miles from China's coast, houses Taiwan's fleet of 53 French-made Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters, designated as the island's primary interceptor force. The base's vulnerability was underscored by Benjamin Blandin, a research fellow at Taiwan's government-backed Institute for National Defense and Security Research, who stated the facility is "very exposed to the first wave of ground, sea-born, and air-launched missiles."
"Realistically, Hsinchu Air Base could be rendered inoperable after just the first missile wave, or at least in the first 24 hours," Blandin said.
Drill footage showed ground crew utilizing bulldozers and graders to clear simulated debris and cratering on the runway before deploying a heavy fiberglass mat system to restore takeoff and landing capability. An Antelope short-range mobile surface-to-air missile system provided point defense during the operation. Away from the repair site, personnel practiced rapidly rearming Mirage 2000s with Magic Missile II and MICA air-to-air missiles before crews executed an emergency scramble of two jets.
The 10-day Han Kuang exercise, which the Taipei government has shifted toward a less scripted, more reactive format this year, emphasizes a defense-in-depth of the sovereign island against an overwhelmingly larger adversary. While Washington's policy of strategic ambiguity persists, the specific tactics on display—maintaining sortie generation rates under missile attack—highlight the resource-intensive reality of deterring a blockade or amphibious invasion. For American policymakers and the domestic defense industry, these exercises signal a continued demand for advanced precision munitions and expeditionary airfield repair technologies that directly benefit U.S. production lines and workers, reinforcing the strategic case for a robust deterrence posture at no immediate cost of American lives.