Taiwan should prioritize the acquisition of precision weaponry and ammunition from Washington, as well as lobby for the US to establish local production lines, as a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be a war of attrition across multiple fronts, Taiwan Security Association deputy secretary-general Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) said yesterday.
Ho’s comments came after Reuters published a report citing US officials as saying that the administration of US President Donald Trump sought to exceed the amount of weapons sales to Taiwan compared with his first term.
According to the report, the first Trump administration approved sales of about US$18.3 billion of weapons to Taiwan, compared with about US$8.4 billion during former US president Joe Biden’s term.
Photo: Daniel Ceng Shou Yi, EPA-EFE
According to the report, US officials said that Trump and his administration were committed to “enhancing hard deterrence” for Taiwan.
“That’s where the president is. That’s where all of us are,” the report quoted one US official as saying.
China is likely to make an invasion of Taiwan a war of attrition to deplete Taiwan and its allies’ ammunition stores, especially precision weaponry, Ho said.
Taiwan should prioritize the expansion of all ammunition production capabilities, such as ammunition for the M114 155mm howitzer, the Type 63 120mm mortar, and the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), Ho said, adding that Taiwan should also increase the capacity of its reserves for such ammunition.
The inventory of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US, at 84, is severely insufficient to prevent China from conducting landing operations, Ho said.
Taiwan should purchase more ATACMS, or should consider purchasing the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-ranged ballistic missiles being developed to replace the ATACMS, he said.
Ho also urged Taipei to work with the US to establish ammunition manufacturing lines in Taiwan, citing a 2020 agreement between Lockheed Martin and the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp to establish an F-16 maintenance center in Taichung.
Ensuring local production of ammunition would strengthen Taiwan’s defense resilience, Ho said.
Upgrades to tactical communications and information systems should also be prioritized, with a focus on anti-drone capabilities, electronic warfare equipment and expanding tactical radar coverage, Ho said.
Ho said that purchases of F-35s and AEGIS-equipped ships should not be the immediate focus, as such platforms require five years to a decade to become useful, while increasing Taiwan’s number of HIMARS and locally produced Thunderbolt-2000 wheeled multiple launch rocket systems would provide immediate combat capabilities for a war of attrition.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
RSS