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Cost-effective, guided missiles 'key to asymmetric warfare in Taiwan'

ROC Central News Agency

03/11/2022 05:50 PM

Taipei, March 11 (CNA) Taiwan should leverage cost-effective precision-guided munitions to bolster its counter-invasion asymmetric warfare capabilities, a researcher from the Institute for National Defense and Security Research said Friday.

Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), an associate research fellow at the Taipei-based think tank, told CNA that affordable precision-guided air defense and anti-ship missiles would be key to giving Taiwan an advantage over an invading military force.

Su's comments come after Mara Karlin, United States assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and capabilities, said in a Senate hearing Thursday that Taiwan should strengthen its asymmetric capabilities, as a preparatory measure, in the event of an attack by China.

"I think the situation we're seeing in Ukraine right now is a very worthwhile case study ... about why Taiwan needs to do all it can to build asymmetric capabilities, to get its population ready, so that it can be ready as quickly as possible should China choose to violate its sovereignty," Mara said in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Asymmetric warfare, which has been used to varying degrees of success throughout history, has been put to use again during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Su said.

However, Su noted that while Ukraine has mainly been a land war, an invasion of Taiwan would likely include sea and air engagement, necessitating a different approach to asymmetric warfare.

Despite the differences, the logic remains the same, Su said, in that "the key to asymmetric warfare is the difference in cost."

Using cheaper but precise munitions to destroy enemy forces would follow the example set by Ukrainian forces, which have employed Javelin missiles to take out armored vehicles, and Stinger missiles to shoot down helicopters, Su said.

Because of the differences in terrain between Taiwan and Ukraine, it would be possible to use anti-ship missiles to offset enemy naval power and anti-aircraft missiles to take down enemy fighter planes, Su said.

Ukraine has claimed 12,000 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of hostilities on Feb. 24, along with the loss of 49 fighter jets, 81 helicopters, and 335 tanks, figures that have been disputed by Moscow.

Even though U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have continued throughout both the Donald Trump and Joe Biden administrations, including precision-guided weapons, acquisition of material needs to accelerate as the threats are also growing, Su said.

In light of this, Taiwan's military can continue to purchase domestically-made missiles with stealth functions or purchase advanced anti-ship missiles and smart mines from the U.S., he added.

(By Matt Yu and William Yen)

Enditem/ASG