Saturday, March 27, 2021

China's Growing Military Firepower Casts Doubts On The U.S. being Able To Defend Taiwan

China reveals its most advanced nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile, the DF-41, at the National Day parade in Beijing on October 1, 2019. Photo: Fan Lingzhi/GT 


In war games, China often wins, and U.S. warships and aircraft are kept at bay. 

WASHINGTON — China's massive arms buildup has raised doubts about America's ability to defend Taiwan if a war broke out, reflecting a shifting balance of power in the Pacific where American forces once dominated, U.S. officials and experts say. 

In simulated combat in which China attempts to invade Taiwan, the results are sobering and the United States often loses, said David Ochmanek, a former senior Defense Department official who helps run war games for the Pentagon at the RAND Corp. think tank. 

In tabletop exercises with America as the "blue team" facing off against a "red team" resembling China, Taiwan's air force is wiped out within minutes, U.S. air bases across the Pacific come under attack, and American warships and aircraft are held at bay by the long reach of China's vast missile arsenal, he said. 


WNU Editor: China has made huge investments in its missile arsenal. This is their firepower and one that China has a huge advantage. In the event of a major war it is a given that China will be launching scores of these missiles at each major military target, probably destroying and/or severely damaging each of them in less than an hour.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

China is easy to provoke and quickly to deploy its nuclear forces. These are two massive signs that China is not a real threat. Its also a sign that if it does attack Taiwan that it wont be a limited strike, they will unleash everything they have, including nuclear and highly likely on US soil. You want to talk about Taiwan, when the entire world is at stake! Then the writer obviously doesn't understand just how much China hates Americans, have grown up hating them.

Anon said...

I totally agree.

Anon said...

How many devastating bomb during WW2? You do not need many of them. Dont you ever try. Military Hardware combined the largest in the world.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Davenport,

It is true that the Chinese did not defeat Vietnam in 1979. It is also true that they got involved in a kettle battle and got mauled. The nice Russkis had a hand in the debacle. They provided satellite data. They well advised Vietnamese sucked the Chinese in.

It would be a mistake to assume that the Chinese have the same force ratio with Vietnam, the same training, the same doctrine and the same equipment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War


https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/1979-china-was-crushed-war-vietnam-what-happened-next-25322

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/sino-vietnamese-war-1979-conflict-forever-changed-asia-174264

The article by Gao is alarming.

China appears to be somewhat winning in the Himalayas. India is preoccupied facing west. Point is India is no push over. When Pakistan occupied empty border posts at the end of fall, the Indian retook them under fire in the cold at extreme altitude. Indians do not lack for courage. Yet, the Chinese have won ground. The Indians cannot project enough force due to resources? Still the end result is the same. The Chinese made small gains.

Anon said...

When you believe thats when at the same time uou loose

Stephen Davenport said...

The Chinese have the the same problem the Russians do in that they are very countries with a military that cannot cover everything. Like all authoritarian regimes they piss off all their neighbors so have to spread their forces around to cover them all. Russia found this out in the Ukraine in which they do not have enough forces to defeat them.

Anonymous said...

Chinses trolls hard at work here I see.

You are right about the Chinese psyops. This is not the usual crowd here. Here is the part they do not understand. They think the jihadist suicide bombers are crazy. They have not seen anything yet.

Anonymous said...

The key to defeating China in a Taiwan war is to concentrate US firepower early in the attack against Chinese airbases, harbors, and radar installations. This means having subs always nearby in numbers and US long range bombers in sufficient numbers launch daily attacks with hundreds of precision bombs. This is today.

Tomorrow it changes with the advent of long range mobile missiles carried by short range fighters and drones. B-21 will also make an impact.

Unknown said...

If the Chinese have the capability to launch a multitude of attacks on Taiwan Inc airborne & amphibious assault ops, there'll never be a better time than now with a President in the Whitehouse who wants to MAWA. Keep ducking 🙉

Anonymous said...

Joe doesn't want MAWA. He just wants his privileges restored, so he can play video games at the Camp David arcade.

Anonymous said...

I should preface this as I do view Taiwan as a part of China. With that said the PRC taking Taiwan by force is a hard undertaking. The only semi decent landing sights are on Taiwan's west coast and only viable during certain periods of time during the year. China does not have either the sea or air lift capabilities to land troops and supply them for a quick victory.That is not to even taking in Taiwan's SSM batteries that would reduce that invasion force more. Especially since many of Taiwan's defenses are hardened against smart munitions. Add to that the resistance provided by a standing military and Taiwan's ready reserve plus it's large pool of possible conscripts makes the likelihood of the PRC landing enough troops to push out of a beachhead hard and seaborne invasions are not easy affairs to begin with. So IMHO the PRC being able to militarily seize Taiwan is low. Not impossible but low as the eastern part of Taiwan would be relatively untouched because of the PRC having to focus on the western coast.

Anonymous said...

I should preface this as I do view Taiwan as a part of China.

Like Germany. A lot of people think or thought Germany should be one. The only question for 44 yeas was should it be under the East German Honecker model or the West German model.

Is the PORC worse than USSA, where the grandees will replace you with anyone from anywhere so long as they can be assured of a compliant clientela. Just remember that the jackass Marx was half right.

Anonymous said...

You smash enough units with big missiles and establish air superiority, you can steer straight for the wharf.