Taiwan has fired dozens of rockets from an American missile system in China’s direction for the first time.

The US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) was fired on Wednesday as part of a two-day drill held around Taiwan’s central Taichung city.

The drill took place along a 12-mile front of “red beaches”, coastal areas across the country considered the most likely landing spots for a Chinese invasion.

The Himars is one of the most important systems in Taiwan’s arsenal and would be critical in defending against a Chinese attack. The military also fired its domestically produced Thunderbolt-2000 rocket system, US-made Paladin howitzers and anti-tank guided missiles.

“The live-fire exercise was based on a scenario simulating an enemy amphibious force attempting to invade the central region,” according to a readout from Taiwan’s ministry of national defence.

The drills were set to “enhance the effectiveness of combat-oriented training, enabling officers and men to recognise that ‘everywhere is a battlefield, and training is constant'”, the readout said.

While Taiwan has test-fired its Himars system before, it has previously only done so from a military base on its south-eastern coast where rockets have been fired into the Pacific Ocean.

The 32 rockets that were tested on Wednesday only had a maximum range of approximately nine miles, but Taiwan possesses longer-range munitions capable of reaching China.

Credit: Taiwan Military News Agency

Taiwan has also fired artillery into the Taiwan Strait before, but the decision to test the Himars system specifically from its western coast in China’s direction was “symbolically significant”, said William Yang, a senior analyst for north-east Asia at the Crisis Group.

“This is sending a very strong, concurrent signal to Beijing about Taiwan’s determination, and also potential progress that it is making in enhancing its strike capability towards China,” said Mr Yang.

The Himars system is also a key part of Taiwan’s “asymmetric” capability. Also known as the “porcupine strategy”, it is a doctrine aimed at denying China’s much larger and stronger forces by relying on mobile, lower-cost systems.

Himars has been one of the most effective assets used by Ukraine in its defence against Russia. The mobile system can launch missiles around 190 miles, and quickly move to another locations before being targeted.

Taiwan received its first batch of 11 Himars in late 2024 and is expected to receive another 18 systems by the end of the year. The US also approved an additional 82 Himars in December as part of a historic $11bn (£8.1bn) arms package to Taiwan.

Mr Yang said that the timing of the recent drills was unlikely to be a coincidence, occurring less than a month after Donald Trump met Xi Jinping in China where he referred to Taiwan as a “negotiating chip”.

Soon after his return home, the US government indefinitely paused a $14bn (£10.4bn) weapons package to Taiwan.

While the Trump administration claimed this was to save munitions for the war in Iran, experts said it was also likely an effort to curry favour with Beijing, which staunchly opposes American weapon sales to Taiwan.

The Trump administration has also pushed for Taiwan to increase its defence spending to 3 per cent in 2026 and to 5 per cent by 2030, but the country’s main opposition party has rebuked attempts to grow the military budget.

In May, Taiwan’s legislature finally approved an £18.5bn defence package, though this was less than two thirds of what the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party had proposed.