Pentagon urged to ship Taiwan truck-launched anti-ship missiles and long-range guided bombs

The Pentagon should quickly convert current missiles and bombs into new weapons that may successfully counter rising threats of a Chinese assault on Taiwan, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned in a letter to the Pentagon on Monday.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican, acknowledged in a letter to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks that constructing long-range precision guided weapons is urgently wanted to discourage struggle with Beijing.

The Pentagon at the moment is struggling to satisfy calls for for U.S. weapons wanted by Ukraine and Israel, exposing deeper shortcomings within the munitions industrial base, Mr. Gallagher acknowledged within the letter. That has made it tougher to discourage Chinese army motion towards Taiwan that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his forces to be prepared to hold out towards the island by 2027, Mr. Gallagher argued.

“To prevent war, we must quickly remake an arsenal of deterrence that can arm Taiwan as well as our own forces to allow us to prevail in any conflict in the Indo-Pacific,” Mr. Gallagher stated.

Recent struggle video games simulating battle with China over Taiwan revealed that the United States would run out of long-range precision-guided bombs and missiles lower than per week into the battle, Mr. Gallagher stated, calling the prospect of an prolonged battle with out the army’s best weapons “deeply alarming.”

Delays in sending Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan are additionally rising the hazards that Taipei will likely be unable to defend towards and repel a future Chinese invasion, and rearming the island’s army after a Chinese assault — because the United States did in Ukraine following the Russian invasion — could be considerably tougher or infeasible.

To bolster defenses within the area, the Pentagon wants to make use of two distinctive and artistic weapons variations, Mr. Gallagher acknowledged.

One off-the-shelf weapon for Taiwan could possibly be what Mr. Gallagher known as “MacGyver” Harpoon missiles — U.S. ship-launched weapons that Ukraine was capable of fireplace from truck launchers constructed with U.S. assist in June 2022. The truck-launched Harpoons sank two Russian ships within the Black Sea.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery testified to the choose committee that comparable, cobbled-together weapons must be used to hurry arms deliveries to Taiwan.

Congressional critics stated the Pentagon has a backlog of greater than $2 billion value of weapons bought by Taipei held up by protection trade delays. Taiwan at the moment is ready on 400 Harpoon missiles and 100 Harpoon launchers that the Pentagon introduced as a sale over three years in the past and which is probably not attain the island till 2029.

“A ‘MacGyver’ solution, using existing components and older Harpoon missiles already in our inventory, may help get much-needed weapons to Taiwan before then and at a significantly lower cost per round,” Mr. Gallagher wrote, referencing the Eighties tv character who long-established weapons and instruments from on a regular basis objects.

The Harpoons could possibly be despatched to Taiwan from the present stockpile of tons of of Harpoons awaiting demilitarization or destruction and loaded in truck launchers like these inbuilt Ukraine, Mr. Gallagher acknowledged. Launch assist and command and management for the Harpoons could possibly be salvaged from decommissioned Navy ships and communications gear and information hyperlinks might come from present Taiwan army methods.

“Put together, the resulting missile system could provide Taiwan with crucial capabilities at a time when delays in the contracting and production of new Harpoon missiles and launchers are raising troubling questions about the schedule of their deliveries,” Mr. Gallagher acknowledged.

Another jerry-rigged weapon for the Taiwanese army could possibly be a reconfigured Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), the guided bomb used extensively by the army in Iraq and Afghanistan. The precision-guided bombs had been an efficient weapon throughout years of fight and at its peak round 45,000 JDAMs had been produced. Many stay within the U.S. arsenal.

Both weapons alterations are examples of “outside the box” considering for options to bolster defenses towards a Chinese assault on Taiwan. “The urgency of the moment requires nothing less,” Mr. Gallagher stated, urgent Ms. Hicks to supply the committee with solutions to a set of questions by Jan. 8.

Lt. Col. Marty Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, stated the Defense Department will reply to the Hicks letter on to members beneath its established coverage.

“Our defense relationship with Taiwan aligns against current PRC threats,” Col. Meiners stated.

“As [Defense] Secretary [Lloyd] Austin and senior leaders across the department have stated, conflict between the United States and the PRC is neither imminent nor inevitable.”

Col. Meiners insisted that deterrence throughout the Taiwan Strait is “real and strong.”