Taiwan should make broader use of civilian assets, including drones and security guards, to defend the country in a potential cross-strait conflict, security experts told a conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
Drones have played a key role in Ukraine’s effective asymmetric warfare as it fended off Russian attacks, proving that the technology has caused a seachange in armed conflict, Geosat Aerospace & Technology Inc chairman Lo Cheng-fang (羅正方) told the event hosted by think tank Taiwan Tao Strategy Association.
Uncrewed aerial vehicles, such as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, helped Ukrainian forces defy predictions that the country would fall quickly without air superiority, he said.
Photo: Aaron Tu, Taipei Times
“Drones have become the poor country’s air superiority,” Lo said.
Taiwan’s armed forces should tap into the military potential of the country’s 10,000 licensed drone operators for service at war, but should also be wary that Chinese drones could also pose a national security threat, he said.
The Civil Defense Act (民防法) could be amended to authorize private security companies to help maintain order and public safety during wartime, Security Industries Association president Chang Ta-chang (張達錩) said.
Private security groups are suited for the task, as they have familiarity with Taiwan’s basic infrastructure, including hospitals, mass transit systems, banks and residential complexes, he said, adding that the country’s 300,000 security guards could also help distribute necessities and collect information.
Beijing’s strategy to defeat Taiwan is to isolate the country first by using sea, air and land forces in overwhelming combinations, said Kung Shan-son (龔祥生), a research fellow at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The Taiwanese military’s strong defense abilities and layered deterrence was developed largely to foil that strategy by developing highly mobile, well-concealed and long-range precision weapon capabilities, he said.
The survival of Taiwan’s command and control centers are bolstered by these defense advances, as well as aiding surveillance capabilities and combat forces, he said, adding that Taiwan’s advanced weapons could disrupt the enemy’s operational tempo, force delays and ultimately defeat an invasion, he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
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