Taiwan should bolster the military’s command and control capabilities to enhance its integration with US and Japanese forces, former defense officials from the US and Japan said.
They made the remarks to the Central News Agency after a series of tabletop wargames in Taipei hosted by the Prospect Foundation, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation and the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security.
Taiwan must improve its command and control capabilities to defend itself alongside US and Japanese forces against Chinese aggression, said Institute for Indo-Pacific Security chairman Randall Shriver, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs.
Photo: CNA
The three nations’ joint command and control efforts have failed to achieve the level of information sharing needed in complicated operations such as establishing air corridors, Shriver said.
The armed forces need better battlefield awareness, optimized operational monitoring, and coherent links with US and Japanese forces, he said.
Such capabilities are a prerequisite for the military’s ability to wage joint warfare, make operational decisions quickly and autonomously, and fight efficiently as part of a coalition, he said.
Although Taiwan and Japan have made progress in integrating their command and control systems, the wargame exposed flaws in communication that could cause the defenders to suffer heavy losses, Shriver said.
Taiwan is a close US partner, but not an official ally, which results in insufficient integration in the two nations’ communications and war planning, he added.
Shriver also said that Taiwan’s resilience and military preparedness would have a major impact on the US leadership’s willingness to assist with its defense.
In case of a conflict, Taiwan must be able to resist long enough so that US forces could intervene, he said.
Strengthening the nation’s energy grid and telecommunications infrastructure would benefit it more than procurement of arms, he said.
President William Lai’s (賴清德) decision to head the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee sent the world a powerful message, he said.
Self-sufficiency is key in Taiwan’s chances of survival against blockades and other forms of aggression that fall short of a full-scale invasion, he added.
The US Congress’ bid to include Taiwan in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is of limited usefulness, as the joint drills have been “dumbed down” to accommodate international participants, he said.
RIMPAC’s focus on international conflicts lies outside of Taiwan’s security needs, he said, adding that the integration of Taiwanese armed forces in joint operations requires their participation in more sophisticated and rigorous exercises.
Sasakawa Peace Foundation senior fellow Tomohisa Takei, a former Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force chief of staff, said that improved communications in joint operations are key to avoiding friendly fire incidents.
Integrating Taiwan into the US-Japan bilateral security framework poses a significant challenge, Takei said.
Tokyo is not prepared to deal with a military threat from China, whose economy is four times the size of Japan’s, Sasakawa Peace Foundation executive director Nobukatsu Kanehara said.
Tokyo must enhance trilateral security cooperation arrangements with Taiwan and the US to achieve effective deterrence, he said.
The lack of formal diplomatic relations between Taiwan and Japan has hampered government-to-government collaborations, he added.
Taiwan’s inadequate oil reserves — sufficient for sustaining the nation for only two weeks — is a serious concern, Kanehara said.
There is not much Taipei could do to bolster energy self-sufficiency other than making use of nuclear energy, he said.
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