The worldʻs largest naval exercise is still going on in and around Hawaiʻi. The Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC, exercises are scheduled to wrap up a week from Thursday.
But that's just one of several noteworthy drills underway or recently completed in the Asia Pacific.
Taiwan has staged the annual Han Kuang military exercises for 40 years. However, this week's version is different.
Defense officials call it less scripted, as it is designed to be more pragmatic.
Live-fire drills are concentrated on Taiwanʻs outlying islands in areas where Chinese forces would likely attack first during any military operation.
There will be more night-time exercises and military officials say their level of intensity will be increased.
The whole idea is to make the maneuvers more realistic to reflect combat conditions, adding elements of chaos like severed command lines and complications with communications systems.
And there's another layer: civil defense drills, such as evacuating streets of major cities during a simulated missile attack and testing warning alerts on cell phones.
The actions come as China has stepped up its own drills near Taiwan, as well as elsewhere in the region.
Last week, Chinese and Russian warships held exercises off Chinaʻs southern coast in Guangdong Province.
The week before, a Chinese carrier strike group wrapped up a 10-day deployment to the Philippine Sea, which was the first time this year the aircraft carrier has deployed outside the South China Sea.
