Strategic clarity required for ‘Hellscape/Porcupine’ to work: “‘Hellscape’ Swarms Could Be a Cost-Effective Taiwan Defense, Says Report,” USNI News

Taiwan Republic 台灣国, geostrategery, and world history classrooms

Strategic clarity required for ‘Hellscape/Porcupine’ to work: “‘Hellscape’ Swarms Could Be a Cost-Effective Taiwan Defense, Says Report,” USNI News. Taiwan Republic 台灣国, geostrategery, and world history classrooms. This is an excellent report from CNAS with an informative discussion session available on The YouTubes (see link below). Because of the lost eight years under anti-democracy and anti-Taiwan Ma, and the leadership deficiencies within the reactionary China KMT-led Taiwan national security establishment, Taiwan Republic is decades behind in its military unmanned vehicle developments. Therefore, this is a timely push for Taiwan’s security against the China Threat.

For CNAS’s thoughtful suggestions and the broader Indo-Pacific Command’s “Hellscape” unmanned vehicle vision to be adopted by Taiwan, an honest and accurate memory of America’s decades-long erratic and contradictory policies towards Taiwan, coupled with a commitment to strategic clarity are necessary.

On accurate and honest historical memory – too many American policymakers have either amnesia or self-serving rationalizations (imperialist hubris), on the decades of restrictive American policies towards arms Taiwan may import, coupled with ambivalence towards Taiwan’s national survival in the case of a Chinese invasion. Ideally, Taiwan ought to focus on homeland defense and making the Taiwan Strait a “hellscape” for the Chinese invasion force – though this focus would only make sense, and would be easier for democratically elected civilian leaders in Taiwan to push these changes through the national security establishment, if Taiwan has concrete assurances from the US and democratic allies that this close range, homeland defense “hellscape” is part of a broader tactical and strategic plan – with the US, Japan, and other democratic allies committed to neutralizing medium to long range Chinese targets.

Strategic clarity from the US addresses another problem – over the last four decades, erratic and self-contradictory policies from the US regarding Taiwan’s national security have wasted time and money for Taiwanese taxpayers – by forcing Taiwan into purchasing substandard weapons (Oliver Hazard Perry frigates instead of AEGIS destroyers is a good example; Sparrow air-to-air missiles instead of AMRAAMs is another ….) from the US in the name of “managing” parity across the strait, or by the US forcing Taiwan to invest in manufacturing their own weapons that the US refuses to sell. In many cases, such as the Taiwanese jet fighter IDFs – Taiwan does not have the technological know-how, nor the economies of scale, to make such an investment rational – for all of the American think tankers complaining in 2024 about Taiwan not spending enough on defense, and/or purchasing too many big-ticket weapons, what would have happened had the US sold F-16s to Taiwan in the early 1980s, and Taiwan had been able to divert half of the cost of running around in circles developing its own inferior IDFs into unmanned aerial vehicles? But imperialist hubris means never having to say you are sorry, or even that you remember, right?

There are still American imperialist academics and policymakers who stubbornly hold onto strategic ambiguity, arguing that US policy is based on “double deterrence” – i.e., deterring a Chinese communist invasion while also deterring Taiwanese formal independence. One should challenge anyone who, in 2024, still repeating this antiquated formulation to name a mainstream pro-Taiwan and pro-democracy leader in Taiwan Republic over the last two decades who is either advocating formal independence, or pro-war? To the best of my knowledge, the only idiots left on planet Earth who are seriously advocating immediate formal independence and/or war are the Chinese, their anti-democracy allies inside Taiwan, and American academics and think tankers who still believe the US “giving” democratic Taiwan to the Chinese would lead to peace in our time.

Strategic clarity and commitment from the US and allies allow Taiwan’s democratically elected civilian leaders to plan rationally on how best to reallocate limited national security resources – for example, deciding which unmanned vehicles are worthwhile to domestically develop; and which are best license-produced in cooperation with US manufacturers; and which are best imported from abroad. From jet fighters to missiles, from naval vessels to armored vehicles, Taiwan’s military inventory is a museum of the decades of misguided and self-defeating American policy towards communist China and the Indo-Pacific. This is the opportunity to fundamentally discard Strategic Ambiguity in favor of clarity in the defense of global democracies, hence, core American national interest. 4.7.2024

“Swarms over the Strait: Drone Warfare in a Future Fight to Defend Taiwan”

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