Field training for the annual Hankuang war games this year will be brought forward to late April to allow the troops to be deployed to help combat possible flooding in the coming typhoon season later in the year, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced Tuesday at a news conference. Lee Yue-chang, assistant deputy chief of the General Staff for Operations and Planning under the MND, said the field training will be held in late April instead of in the traditional July-October period so that the troops can be better trained in May and June in preparation for disaster prevention and rescue missions in the typhoon period from July to October. The second-stage computer simulation section of the games will be executed in mid-July. The field exercises will involve no military hardware, while live-fire exercises will be held separately on specific military bases or coastal locations, Lee went on. Asymmetric operations will also be included in this year's field exercises to examine the military's ability to confront unconventional military strategies adopted by enemy troops, he added. 