- Exercise Start Time Adjustment: Exercise A begins at 7:45 AM, while Exercise B starts earlier at 5:00 AM.
- Exercise Targets: The targets on the island now include Keelung in northern Taiwan and Taitung in eastern Taiwan.
- Exercise Areas: The exercise areas remain the Taiwan Strait, northern Taiwan, southern Taiwan, and the eastern part of the island, forming a joint encirclement of Taiwan. However, Kinmen Island is excluded, likely because regular law enforcement operations by the Coast Guard have been normalized in the Kinmen area.
- Exercise Content: For the first time, the concept of "key ports and areas risk control" is introduced. Additionally, the expression "strikes on sea and land" is different from previous phrasing.
- Bilingual Announcements: The announcements are released in both Chinese and English to ensure that the U.S. and other external countries can understand them.
- Participating Forces: The Liaoning aircraft carrier and the 10,000-ton Coast Guard vessel 2901 are involved, representing a joint exercise by the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Theater Commands.
Some observation of this exercise compared to 2024A, also by @牧星观海天 on Weibo (machine translated)
Liaoning's WESTPAC trip and participation in this exercise so shortly after is really interesting to me