Once more, we're told "one weird trick" will save Taiwan from being conquered by China. Just click the link and behold!
America needs a "new" strategy to defend Taiwan:
Taking advantage of widely available aerial, naval and undersea drones, “hedge forces” could deny access to an aggressor. Ukraine used this approach to sink half Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and restore its maritime trade while Houthi drones under and above the water have upended worldwide shipping traffic with their attacks across the Red Sea. The U.S. military should exploit these same technologies to disrupt or slow a Chinese invasion. Tangled up in a hedge force’s drones, China’s troop transports and their escorts would also be easier targets for U.S. missiles.
This isn't really new. It's just another name for "porcupine," "hedgehog," or--really--"Hezbollah" strategies that worship at the altar of the false god of asymmetrical warfare:
"Asymmetrical" concepts seem to miss the point that any weapon system or type of military unit has weaknesses that another weapon or type of unit must cover. That's why we embrace combined arms within the ground services and jointness between the services. It's rock, paper, scissors.
When I hear about asymmetric defenses, it almost always means that someone thinks that a country can escape the burden of defense spending by some clever device that undermines the enemy's entire expensive arsenal. Just because a country decides to use weapons other than carriers to fight carriers or weapons other than tanks to fight tanks doesn't make them asymmetric. It makes it war.
The main new thing is that it restricts itself to naval warfare. But as I commented before about the Ukraine evidence:
Anybody who says Ukraine's success against Russia's Black Sea Fleet should cause China to worry about what Taiwan could do ignores that Ukraine has inflicted this damage over 25 months. Taiwan would need to inflict multiples of that damage in 25 hours.
Still, at least the authors don't try to claim their one neat trick can deter the Chinese. I have my doubts about our ability to calculate that sort of thing.
As for the Houthi, we're going through the motions of fighting them.
Ultimately, disrupting or slowing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan isn't enough if the Chinese get ashore and stay there.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
NOTE: I'm adding updates on the Last Hamas War in this post.
