Taiwan Needs to Spend More on Defense Before They Ponder Spending Better

Taiwan has so many defense needs to deter or defeat a Chinese invasion that they can almost literally throw more money at any problem and gain needed capabilities before they need to debate how to spend their money more wisely.

This author argues that Taiwan needs to ditch their submarine plans in order to focus on larger numbers of small anti-ship vessels on the west coast to stop a Chinese invasion fleet and only slightly larger vessels to keep sea lines of communication open on the east coast.

I must say that I fully agree that Taiwan has two different needs for their navy that require different types of ships.

Taiwan needs a lot of smaller anti-ship vessels in the Taiwan Strait because larger ships would be toast at the hands of Chinese air and sea power. Taiwan has a sea denial mission there to stop or weaken a Chinese invasion effort so that ground forces can throw the surviving invaders into the sea.

And Taiwan definitely needs larger ships off the east coast to engage in a sea control mission--especially regarding anti-submarine warfare--to keep lines of supply open to the outside world so China can't blockade Taiwan.

But saying that Taiwanese subs aren't worth the cost for anti-submarine work fails on two counts.

One, I'd give more weight to the argument that subs are too expensive given that the same money could buy other arguably more useful capabilities if Taiwan was struggling under the weight of defense spending. But Taiwan is not maxing out, spending only about 2% of their GDP on defense. Taiwan needs to spend more and can afford it.

Two, it is a mistake to think of the Taiwanese subs as solely an anti-submarines weapon. Their value is much broader.

The subs could be used to sink Chinese surface ships in the west trying to invade and in the east to sink Chinese surface ships trying to blockade the island.

The subs could be used to blockade China and interfere with Chinese sea lines of communication. China would not like Taiwanese subs sinking oil tankers heading to China or interfering with Chinese exports.

Further, if Taiwanese subs are at sea, it gives America (although we currently lack anti-ship missiles for our subs), Japan, and Australia the option of engaging the Chinese with our own submarine fleets in the grey area of conflict after we've decided to intervene to help Taiwan but before we can gather our surface fleets and aircraft to openly intervene.

It would be very easy to simply commend the "Taiwanese" sub captains for their skills.

I remain firmly committed to the Taiwanese acquisition of submarines. I just wish the Taiwanese had managed to find sellers earlier this century when they first tried to buy them. I worry that by the time Taiwan can build their own, it might be too late.