TAINAN: The Taiwanese air force used a closed-off motorway as a runway on Tuesday in a rare drill simulating a Chinese surprise attack that had wiped out its major airbases.
The scenario for the exercise, which involved more than 1,300 soldiers, was a conflict with China in which aerial bombardment had paralysed Taiwan's airbases, the air force said.
Six jets -- two F-16s, two Mirage 2000-5s and two Taiwan-built Indigenous Defence Fighters -- landed on a motorway near Tainan city, where they refuelled and loaded with missiles and other ammunition before taking off again.
The exercise is part of a series of war games stretching over a five-day period and codenamed "Han Kuang 27", or "Han Glory 27".
Taiwan regularly stages war games simulating possible attacks by China, which still claims the island as part of its territory and refuses to renounce the use of force to take it back.
Taiwanese experts estimate that China has more than 1,600 missiles aimed at the island and has recently deployed a new type of ballistic missile despite improving ties.
Taiwan has ruled itself since the end of a civil war in 1949. Tensions between the two former arch-rivals have eased markedly in recent years under the island's Beijing-friendly government.
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