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

A version of this story appeared in the Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each Wednesday.

The Pentagon must rapidly convert existing missiles and bombs into new weapons that can effectively counter growing threats of a Chinese attack 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, stated in a letter to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks that building long-range precision guided weapons is urgently needed to deter war with Beijing.

The Pentagon currently is struggling to meet demands for U.S. weapons that Ukraine and Israel want, exposing deeper shortcomings in the munitions industrial base, Mr. Gallagher stated in the letter. That has made it more difficult to deter Chinese military action against Taiwan that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his forces to be ready to carry out against 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 said.

Recent war games simulating conflict with China over Taiwan revealed that the U.S. would run out of long-range precision-guided bombs and missiles less than a week into the conflict, Mr. Gallagher said, calling the prospect of an extended conflict without the military’s most effective weapons “deeply alarming.”

Delays in sending Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan are also increasing the dangers that Taipei will be unable to defend against and repel a future Chinese invasion, and rearming the island’s military after a Chinese attack — as the U.S. did in Ukraine following the Russian invasion — would be significantly more difficult or infeasible.

To bolster defenses in the region, the Pentagon needs to use two unique and creative weapons adaptations, Mr. Gallagher said.

One off-the-shelf weapon for Taiwan could be what Mr. Gallagher called “MacGyver” Harpoon missiles — U.S. ship-launched weapons that Ukraine was able to fire from truck launchers built with U.S. help in June 2022. The truck-launched Harpoons sank two Russian ships in the Black Sea.

Retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery testified to the select committee that similar, cobbled-together weapons should be used to speed arms deliveries to Taiwan.

Congressional critics said the Pentagon has a backlog of more than $2 billion worth of weapons that Taipei purchased held up by defense industry delays. Taiwan currently is waiting on 400 Harpoon missiles and 100 Harpoon launchers that the Pentagon announced as a sale over three years ago and which may not be reach the island until 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 1980s television character who fashioned weapons and tools from everyday items.

The Harpoons could be sent to Taiwan from the existing stockpile of hundreds of Harpoons awaiting demilitarization or destruction and loaded in truck launchers like those built in Ukraine, Mr. Gallagher stated. Launch support and command and control for the Harpoons could be salvaged from decommissioned Navy ships and communications gear and data links could come from current Taiwan military systems.

“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 stated.

Another jerry-rigged weapon for the Taiwanese military could be a reconfigured Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), the guided bomb used extensively by the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The precision-guided bombs were an effective weapon during years of combat and at its peak around 45,000 JDAMs were produced. Many remain in the U.S. arsenal.

Both weapons alterations are examples of “outside the box” thinking for solutions to bolster defenses against a Chinese attack on Taiwan. “The urgency of the moment requires nothing less,” Mr. Gallagher said, pressing Ms. Hicks to provide the committee with answers to a set of questions by Jan. 8.

Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department will respond to the Hicks letter directly to members under its established policy.

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

“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.”

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