The “Lian-An Exercise” was conducted just offshore of Zongying, Kaohsiung on Aug 5 2016. Coast Guard Administration, Ministry of National Defense and National Airborne Service Corps participated in this exercise of fishing protection and air-sea search and rescue for the improvement of coordination across government agencies and the response capability. It was an actual action that shows the government’s commitment to protecting the country’s fishing rights and allows people to find out what the government has done for the protection of fishery. For this exercise, the Coast Guard deployed the Kaohsiung and the Miaoli; the Navy dispatched more than a dozen of ship, including Chengkung Class and Jingjiang Class; the Air Force sent out P3C patrol airplane and S70C Seagull helicopters; and the Corps provided AS-365 Dolphins and the new UH-60M Blackhawks for the first time.
The exercise was about the air-sea joint search and rescue, commanding, control and communications in a joint fishing protection mission. It included “chasing down trespassing foreign fishing boats,” “our fishing boats are disturbed and chased by unknown vessels,” “anti-hijacking at sea,” and “rescue of maritime accident,” showing the government’s determination to protect the country’s rights for the ocean and improve the confidence and ability in fishing protection. Of course the eye catcher of this exercise was the new red-and-white UH-60M Blackhawks performing a rescue mission at sea. A “fisherman” went overboard due to a fire on his fishing boat and the Blackhawk flewin swiftly to “fish” him out of the water and danger, a good demonstration of the air-sea rescue capability.
This exercise was designed to verify and improve the cooperation and coordination across agencies, facilitate a healthy response mechanism, ensure the safety of our fishing rights and the fishermen, respond to any accident occurring around Taiwan, and embody the government’s policy to “uphold sovereignty and protect the fishing rights.”