TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Army’s Special Forces will march and ride over 457 kilometers for 18 days of war games beginning March 15, reports said Saturday (Feb. 19).

It has not yet been determined exactly how far the soldiers will actually march, but the exercises will be concentrated in the Taoyuan and Hsinchu regions in northwest Taiwan, CNA reported. The drills are being seen as a preventive measure in the face of aggression by China, including its near-daily military aircraft incursions in Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Military sources told CNA that the exercises will no longer focus on how many kilometers the troops can walk or whether they should be fighting in the mountains or near the coast. The drills will instead prepare soldiers to respond to enemy threats on all kinds of terrain in all types of weather conditions, the officials said.

The Army emphasized that members of the special forces need to practice different types of combat situations on the coast as well as in the hills and mountains while coordinating with other military units in the air and on land.