The new commander of the Hawaii-based Indo-Pacific Command is warning China’s military to expect a “hellscape” response to any potential military assault on Taiwan. Adm. Samuel Paparo said one scenario designed to dissuade the Chinese from invading is the creation of a network of U.S. and allied drones to swarm the Taiwan Strait that would prevent a rapid takeover of the self-ruled island China claims as its territory.
“They want to offer the world a short, sharp war so that it is a fait accompli before the world can get their act together,” Adm. Paparo told Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin. “My job is to ensure that between now and 2027 and beyond, the U.S. military and the allies are capable of prevailing.”
The four-star admiral said Chinese President Xi Jinping wants his military to be able to overwhelm Taiwan with a surprise attack across the Taiwan Strait and avoid a protracted conflict similar to the long-running war between Ukraine and Russia.
Adm. Paparo says the ‘hellscape” deterrence strategy involves deploying drone swarms as soon as a Chinese invasion force is detected moving across the 100-mile-wide waterway. The swarms would include unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned submarines and unmanned surface vessels that would buy time for U.S. and allied forces to intervene on behalf of Taiwan.
“I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities,” Adm. Paparo said. “So that I can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.” He declined to provide details, but said the strategy is “real and it’s deliverable.”
The concept appears to be part of what the Pentagon is calling its “Replicator” program, a $1 billion effort to deploy large numbers of armed unmanned weapons to defeat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
“The region has got two choices” given the China challenge, Adm. Paparo said. “The first is that they can submit, and, as an end result, give up some of their freedoms. … Or they can arm to the teeth. Both cases have direct implications to the security, the freedom and the well-being of the citizens of the United States of America.”
The Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Global Times said Adm. Paparo’s comments followed Chinese war games around Taiwan meant as “punishment” for the election of the new Taiwan government of President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing accuses of favoring independence for the island democracy. The outlet said the exercises showed China can strike “across all directions of the island without any blind spots,” frustrating any attempt to deploy a hellscape strategy.
“Washington is obsessed with the year 2027, when it believes the Chinese mainland will ‘invade’ Taiwan,” the Global Times said, adding that “if the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces sabotage peace in the Straits, then the U.S. must know that it needs to accept China’s way of handling it. Actually, that is its only option.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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