The people of the Republic of China on Taiwan live with the constant realization that the military forces of mainland Communist China may someday invade their island nation. Taiwan’s military, therefore, is stockpiling U.S. missiles as part of a strategy to repel any invasion of their country by mainland Chinese forces.
The communist government on the mainland has never recognized the ROC as an independent country, and claims that Taiwan is part of its territory. In a July 2019 report, Fox News cited one of many statements made by Chinese Communist officials that they would not rule out the use of force in an effort to reunite Taiwan with the mainland.
Given such voiced or implied threats made by the communist giant that lies only 80 miles across the Taiwan Strait, it is only prudent that Taiwan’s military has made preparations to repel any such invasion. An October 26 article in Forbes outlined the details of Taiwan’s buildup of defensive weapons.
The Trump administration on October 21 notified Congress that it had approved the sale of several U.S.-made weapons systems, including Stand-Off Land-Attack Missile-Expanded Response, or SLAM-ER, missiles, which are air-to-surface cruise missiles that could be launched from Taiwan’s fleet of F-16 fighters. The missiles can carry an 800-pound warhead as far as 155 miles.
“HIMARS and SLAM-ER are cutting-edge technologically and will diversify and improve the capacity of Taiwan’s counter-strike missile force,” Forbes quoted Ian Easton, a Taiwan expert with the Project 2049 Institute in Virginia.
The Taiwan News on October 27 also quoted Easton, who described the plan that Taiwan would implement to repel an attack from Mainland China. After the first wave of Chinese missiles hit Taiwan, Taipei’s strategy is to return fire with ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System, shown), SLAM-ER, Wan Chien air-to-ground cruise missiles, and Yun Feng land-attack cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,242 miles and can be carried on mobile launch vehicles.
Both Forbes and the Taiwan News summarized Taiwan’s defensive plan as to wage missile strikes against mainland ports and air bases across the Taiwan Strait. Their first objective would be to hit troops as they marshaled for an invasion.
Taiwan’s anti-ship missiles would strike Chinese ships trying to transport troops to Taiwan, while anti-aircraft missiles would target attacking planes from the Chinese air force.
As Forbes described Taiwan’s plan:
Unable directly to compete with China, Taiwan has rewritten its war strategy. Instead of meeting the PLA plane-for-plane, ship-for-ship and tank-for-tank, the Taiwanese military plans to let the Chinese get close — then lob thousands of missiles at them. “Taiwan’s objectives are to deter and delay potential invasion,” the Washington, D.C.-based Nuclear Threat Initiative explained.
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