Taiwan should make broader use of civilian assets, including drones and security guards, to defend the country in a potential cross-strait conflict, security experts told a conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
Drones have played a key role in Ukraine’s effective asymmetric warfare as it fended off Russian attacks, proving that the technology has caused a seachange in armed conflict, Geosat Aerospace & Technology Inc chairman Lo Cheng-fang (羅正方) told the event hosted by think tank Taiwan Tao Strategy Association.
Uncrewed aerial vehicles, such as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, helped Ukrainian forces defy predictions that the country would fall quickly without air superiority, he said.
Photo: Aaron Tu, Taipei Times
“Drones have become the poor country’s air superiority,” Lo said.
Taiwan’s armed forces should tap into the military potential of the country’s 10,000 licensed drone operators for service at war, but should also be wary that Chinese drones could also pose a national security threat, he said.
The Civil Defense Act (民防法) could be amended to authorize private security companies to help maintain order and public safety during wartime, Security Industries Association president Chang Ta-chang (張達錩) said.
Private security groups are suited for the task, as they have familiarity with Taiwan’s basic infrastructure, including hospitals, mass transit systems, banks and residential complexes, he said, adding that the country’s 300,000 security guards could also help distribute necessities and collect information.
Beijing’s strategy to defeat Taiwan is to isolate the country first by using sea, air and land forces in overwhelming combinations, said Kung Shan-son (龔祥生), a research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The Taiwanese military’s strong defense abilities and layered deterrence was developed largely to foil that strategy by developing highly mobile, well-concealed and long-range precision weapon capabilities, he said.
The survival of Taiwan’s command and control centers are bolstered by these defense advances, as well as aiding surveillance capabilities and combat forces, he said, adding that Taiwan’s advanced weapons could disrupt the enemy’s operational tempo, force delays and ultimately defeat an invasion, he said.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS