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How next-generation technology could allow US to fight off mainland Chinese invasion of Taiwan

  • US military planners have identified the advanced equipment they believe they need to stop mainland China occupying the island following a war game
  • Analysts say up to 80 per cent of America’s naval and air power may be needed to secure victory, which could still come at a heavy cost

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The US would have to commit the bulk of its forces to the Asia-Pacific to stop an invasion of Taiwan. Photo: Handout
The United States Air Force has concluded it can repel a mainland Chinese invasion of Taiwan using next-generation technology to achieve control of the skies, but victory would come at a heavy cost, according to media reports
Analysts said the US military may need to deploy up to 80 per cent of its conventional naval and air forces to repel the People’s Liberation Army based on the fact that six US aircraft carrier strike groups were needed to defeat Iraq in the first Gulf War in 1991.

“The deployment of 80 per cent of the US naval and air forces is the minimum cost, because today’s PLA is more formidable than the Iraq military in the 1990s,” Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said.

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In the latest war game, the US Air Force showed a marked improvement on exercises in 2018 and 2019, which ended in catastrophic losses, Defense News reported earlier this month, but it described the victory as “pyrrhic” because of the loss of life and equipment involved.

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The report said the exercise was based on the assumption that the US military would overcome various technological and fiscal challenges and simulated that use of next-generation technology.

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