The US plans to deploy thousands of drones in the Taiwan Strait in an operation called “Hellscape” to ensure that any attempt by China to invade Taiwan does not succeed, US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Washington Post.
In an article published on Monday, columnist Josh Rogin quoted Paparo as saying from the sidelines of the recent Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore that the “Hellscape” strategy would involve deploying thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation, Washington and its partners time to assemble a response.
The plan was devised to deter Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who is likely hoping to mount an overwhelming attack with little warning to avoid a protracted war of attrition similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the column quoted Paparo as saying.
Photo: AFP
“I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” he said. “So that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.”
While he said it could not reveal the details of the plan, the US Department of Defense in March announced “Replicator,” a US$1 billion initiative to manufacture thousands of “attritable autonomous systems.”
Paparo said that the initiative was based on the lessons the US has learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, drones alone would not be enough to match the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s buildup of forces with an estimated US$700 billion annual military budget, he said.
The US Indo-Pacific Command was US$11 billion short of the funding it needs for this year, the article said, citing a letter by Paparo’s predecessor to the US Congress in March.
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