[Global Times Special Correspondent Cheng Dong] Editor's note: During the Qingming Festival holiday, Taiwan's "Ministry of Defense" was busy cooperating with the Highway Bureau to verify that the "Hengshan Command Post" of the Taiwan Army was transferred to the Xueshan Tunnel Control Center during wartime.
According to the Taiwan Army's vision, once faced with the "first strike" of the PLA, it will mainly rely on the central mountain range to block and evacuate the troops from the west to the east for combat power preservation and command and control. .
In recent years, as the PLA's military strength has increased significantly, public opinion on the island believes that the most important thing is not how to preserve combat power, but to try to ease the tense cross-strait relations.
Snow Mountain Tunnel is included in this year's "Hanguang"
According to Taiwan's "United Daily News" report on the 5th, affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the Taiwan military is re-evaluating the ability of the underground command posts in each combat area to withstand the "first blow", and at the same time launching the "National Defense Mobilization Preparation Law", and the "Ministry of Communications" "The Expressway Bureau worked together to overcome the technical problems of optical fiber usage and communication integration, and opened a command center in the Snow Mountain Tunnel of "National Highway No. 5".
In preparation for a war, the "Joint Operations Command Center of the Hengshan Command Post" (JOCC) can be transferred here.
Taiwan's "Ministry of Defense" spokesman Sun Lifang said on the 4th that the establishment of the Taiwan military command system is based on the threat of the enemy's situation and operational needs, and will be included in the analysis and evaluation as possible.
Some reporters from the island were allowed to enter the Xueshan Tunnel Control Center, and found that the center personnel continued to closely monitor the traffic flow of "National Highway No. 5" for 24 hours. The movement of the computer rooms, liaison roads and guide pits in the tunnel, including the place where the Taiwan Army was preparing to open a command center, were all displayed on the multifunction screen.
The so-called pilot pit refers to a small section of the tunnel that is first excavated when the subdivision excavates the tunnel.
At the gate of the line control center, the second-generation satellite communication vehicle of the Taiwan Army has been deployed to operate under the camouflage net.
Wang Dingyu, a "legislator" of the DPP, said that no matter from the "Desert Storm" of the year or the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, "the first strike of the war, the command system must be the first priority of the enemy's attack, so how to protect the alliance Combat command posts are important things."
He believes that how to improve the survival rate of the "Hengshan Command Post" during exercises or wartime, and how to keep the command system in operation are very important subjects in the exercise and training. Preparations and other locations are all plans that the Taiwan military has thought about in recent years.
According to the United News Network, this year's "Hanguang 38" exercise of the Taiwan Army will transfer the exercise command post to simulate the wartime entering the Xueshan Tunnel Control Center.
The Taiwan military command post is divided into the main command post, the reserve command post, the mobile command post and the rear command post. Previously, the "Hengshan Command Post" has always had a fixed "backup", which is the Tianshan Tunnel at the Xiulang Bridge in Taipei City. Release the control and combat readiness that have been maintained for more than 30 years, and seal it up in the name of "Pingfeng Zhankai".
Snow Mountain Tunnel, referred to as Snow Tunnel, is a road tunnel with a length of nearly 13 kilometers, which was excavated between 1991 and 2006. It is located between Pinglin District, New Taipei City and Toucheng Town, Yilan County.
Lianhe News Network stated that the travel control center is located in the Snow Mountain Mountains, surrounded by mountains, and the Snow Mountain Tunnel, in addition to the north-south two-way lane, has a guide pit that runs through the entire line below. The depth of the shaft is 512 meters, and the depth of the pit is not only It is sufficiently anti-explosive, and each has a ventilation relay station. Both the plane and the vertical pit have exits, which are suitable for personnel survival and large equipment.
Lv Lishi, the former captain of the Taiwan Army, raised a question, saying that the front of the Snow Mountain Tunnel is a bridge, not on land, but the Snow Mountain Tunnel comes out of Beishi Stream, and the Pengshan Tunnel comes out of Bengshan Stream. The special plane of the leaders of the authorities has no place to park. Although helicopters can be used, they can only take care of a few people. What about the majority?
Has the Taiwan military done a stress test here?
He also said, "How many microwave antennas are there on Dazhi Mountain, can all of them be replaced by optical fibers? The optical fibers are on the road, if the road is attacked and the optical fibers are broken, what can the commander of the three armed forces command?"
There are two warplane preservation bases in the east
In addition to the Snow Mountain Tunnel, the Taiwan authorities have also built two large-scale underground facilities for the preservation of combat power in the east.
After the United States announced that it would "break diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan authorities, the Taiwan military began to build an island defense system and carried out the "underground national defense engineering plan" of "warplane drilling".
Among them, the strategic goal of Hualien's "Jiashan Plan" is to hollow out the eastern part of the Central Mountain Range to store most of Taiwan's advanced fighter aircraft, and to use the "natural dead corner" of the mountain range to resist the attack of traditional missiles to preserve combat power.
The first underground hangar project "Jiashan Base" started construction in 1984 and was completed in 1992. After that, follow-up construction was carried out, which cost more than NT$40 billion before and after, and could park more than 200 fighter jets.
According to the China Times, the Taiwanese army adopted a new construction method at that time. The pressure and weight of the surrounding rocks were used to offset the nearby hollowed-out tunnels, so that the Jiashan Base could withstand a level 7 strength even if it is located in Hualien, where the geology is soft and unstable. shock.
According to reports, in addition to the main project, the Jiashan base also has a runway with a length of about 2,500 meters from the nearby Hualien Air Force Airport directly to the cave hangar.
As soon as the fighter jets on the mission receive the sortie order, the 8-ton iron gate will open within 60 seconds, allowing the fighter jets to quickly enter the runway and lift off.
In addition, the Jiashan Base is shielded by the central mountain range, and is interdependent with the Hualien Air Force Base and the Naval Port. In addition, Taiwan's "CNPC" has built several large oil storage depots nearby, which has become a military defense fortress in the east of Taiwan.
As soon as Tsai Ing-wen took office in May 2016, she inspected the base.
Taiwan's "Ministry of Defense" claims that Jiashan Base is the largest underground air base in the Far East and the hub of Taiwan's eastern sea defense.
The pro-green "Freedom Times" said that Jiashan Base is a safe haven for Taiwan Air Force fighter jets to face the "first strike" of PLA missiles.
In July 2020, during the "Hanguang 36" exercise, the Taiwanese military simulated a base in western Taiwan being attacked by PLA missiles, and the fighter planes were transferred to Jiashan, Hualien, for combat power preservation.
Another major base is in Taitung.
The Taiwan military hollowed out the foot of Shizi Mountain at the head of the north runway of Zhihang Base and built it into an underground hangar.
There are three large hangars in the Shizishan cave that can accommodate 90-150 fighter planes, and there are passages for the fighter planes to glide in between. Because it is built under granite, the blast resistance strength can resist the direct hit of 2,000 pounds of bombs, and can also withstand level 7. The following earthquake.
Su Ziyun, a scholar from the Taiwan military think tank, said that although the S-400 missile deployed by the PLA has a range of 400 kilometers, considering the curvature of the earth and the alpine terrain, it is the correct choice for the Taiwan military to purchase the F-16V to deploy in Taitung.
He believes that this highlights the importance of the Zhi Air Force Base in Shizishan, Taitung, to Taiwan. It, together with the well-known Jiashan Air Force Base, "can be regarded as the most important lifeline of Taiwan."
It is better to give up "Taiwan independence" when discussing the "first strike"
Whether it is the Snow Mountain Tunnel, or the Jiashan Base in Hualien and the Zhihang Base in Taitung, they are all facilities that the Taiwan Army envisages to adopt after suffering the "first blow".
In recent years, the island's attention to the "first strike" has increased significantly.
It is understood that before 1996, the rules of engagement of the Taiwan military were basically to see the PLA military aircraft about to be shot down.
During Feng Shikuan's tenure as "Defense Minister", he clearly instructed then "Air Force Commander" Shen Yiming, "If the situation is critical, the Air Force Commander is fully authorized to launch the first strike, and our pilots must not be shot down."
In September 2020, Taiwan's "Ministry of Defense" revised the "first strike" to "the right to counterattack in self-defense", which is a response measure during the period of regular combat readiness, authorizing the "Air Force Combat Commander" to order.
In February of this year, Taiwan's "Supervisory Institute" invited military representatives to a discussion, in which the impact of the PLA's new generation of fighter jets and helicopters on the maintenance of air defense by the Taiwan military, as well as the Taiwan military's ability to withstand and counterattack the first wave of the PLA's attack became the focus of discussion .
"China Times" said that Taiwan's "Ministry of Defense" has never publicly estimated the number of casualties. Only in November 2003, Chen Zhaomin, who was the "Deputy Minister of Defense", blurted out in the "Legislative Yuan", "The first wave of the Ministry of Defense's war mobilization, that is, the number of casualties is estimated at 128,000.”
Fu Yingchuan, executive director of Taiwan's "China Strategic Society", believes that the main crux of the sense of cross-strait hostility is the "unification and independence dispute."
However, in the face of cross-strait tensions, Tsai Ing-wen keeps inviting senior U.S. officials to visit Taiwan in an attempt to get rid of the one-China structure, which will only increase the confrontation between the two sides of the strait and lead to conflict, and cannot ease the relationship between the two sides of the strait.
An article published in the "China Times" in March stated that the difficulty for Taiwan is not its unwillingness to fire the first shot, but its unwillingness to say "no" to the United States and its unwillingness to admit that it has misjudged the international situation and pushed Taiwan to the top. The strategic frontier of America's new Cold War has created waves in the otherwise calm Taiwan Strait.
The article said that the United States is not benevolent and regards Ukraine as a dog, and there is something going on in the Taiwan Strait. Who said it would not regard Taiwan as a dog?
The United States does not want to confront Russia head-on, so is it willing to face the mainland?
"United Daily News" bluntly stated on the 4th that after the formation of the PLA's aircraft carrier, military aircraft and warships with the ability to attack the east coast, the so-called advantage of the Taiwan Army's so-called underground combat power preservation no longer exists.
Faced with the unavoidable PLA missile attack, the underground anti-bombing capability has its limits and is not the only solution.
The article said that while the Taiwan military has begun to implement underground defenses, the ruling authorities must prevent wars.