Taiwan's military on its feet: It's starting, it's going to be the biggest ever

The early stages of the annual Han Kuang exercises will focus on testing how Taiwan's military can decentralize command in the event of an attack that disrupts communications.

Over the next 10 days, the exercises will be expanded to assess Taiwan's combat readiness against attempts to take over the island outright.

"We are learning from the situation in Ukraine in recent years and thinking realistically about what Taiwan might face in real combat," said a senior defense official, stressing the need to protect command and communication systems.

"Commanders need to think about the problems their troops might face and communicate them to their subordinates," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.

Taiwan considers the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns to be high-intensity "gray zone" operations that are likely to precede a wider Chinese attack.

The annual Han Kuang drills this year will mobilize the largest number of reservists, about 22,000, and for the first time will include Lockheed Martin's new highly mobile artillery-missile systems, or HIMARS, with Taiwan's Sky Sword surface-to-air missiles.