HONG KONG, July 26. /TASS/. The Taiwanese armed forces conducted a military exercise based on the scenario of preventing a hypothetical enemy seizure of the island’s Taoyuan International Airport, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Wednesday.

Airborne forces, acting as the "red" team simulating a mock enemy, landed at the airport in four UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters. They were countered by the "blue" team, consisting of ground forces, police and firefighters.

Similar exercises have previously been held at other Taiwanese airports, but this marked the first such drill at Taoyuan since its opening in 1979. During the exercise, airport emergency services also drilled for liquidating the aftermath of an explosion and simulated extinguishing a mock fire using two Oshkosh Striker 3000 airstrip firefighting vehicles.

The entire exercise lasted for about 40 minutes, during which air traffic authorities cancelled or delayed about 60 flights.

On Monday, the large-scale Han Kuang military exercise kicked off on Taiwan. The drills give Taiwanese forces an opportunity to practice countering a proxy enemy landing and repelling mock enemy attacks on the island’s coastline and key airports, as well as conducting combat operations in an urban environment. Simultaneously, Taiwan is holding mobilization drills with the involvement of military reservists. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s civil defense forces are holding the 46th Wanan exercise, in which civilians will practice sheltering from a mock airstrike in bomb shelters.

The Han Kuang exercise, which has been held annually since 1984, involves all branches of the Taiwanese armed forces. On May 15-19, the island held the staff and command phase of the exercise, which included a computer simulation of repelling a full-scale invasion. The second stage involving live fire drills is taking place on July 24-28.