Taiwan Practices Shooting U.S.-Made TOW Missiles

Taiwan is carrying out coastal defense drills, using U.S.-made TOW missiles and brand new launchers.

Transcript

00:00Taiwan's military is practicing how to defend its coast.

00:09For the next few days, the army will be using US-made TOW missiles to simulate how to defend

00:13against enemy ships that are trying to make it aboard.

00:16These are extremely powerful weapons, often mounted on vehicles with greater range and

00:21power than smaller missiles.

00:23So powerful that with every shot, the building we're standing on shakes from the blast.

00:28Now the way this drill works is that each team has to launch their missile to hit the

00:32target guiding it with the remote control inside the vehicle.

00:36Taiwan's recently appointed defense minister, Wellington Koo, is also overseeing the drill

00:40for the first time, as on Monday's exercise, we'll be shooting practice ahead of Tuesday's

00:46actual test.

00:47Today is practice, tomorrow is the actual test, so we'll have to wait and see how we do tomorrow.

00:59We'll practice today.

01:00We have to get used to it first, and then we'll be able to shoot.

01:03We have to shoot more in the future.

01:07Officials here say these drills are important because they practice defending against what's

01:10known as the Nightmare Scenario, which is an all-out invasion by China.

01:16China just sits over 100 kilometers across the Taiwan Strait, and is threatening to bring

01:20Taiwan under its control with military force.

01:23That's why Taiwan has been boosting its defense and buying more weapons from the U.S., trying

01:27to make it as difficult as possible for China to land troops.

01:31The launchers being used here were just delivered this year.

01:46Taiwan's military says that this is only the first part of the drill, and they'll be

01:54firing the same missiles from this same spot later at night.

01:57It'll be the first time that they conduct a night-time shooting drill of these TOW missiles,

02:01making sure they can defend their coastline at all times of the day.

02:05Joseph Wu and Jaime O'Connor in Pingtung County for Taiwan Plus.