The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan

by Matt Pottinger

Our Recommended Military Force Structure Changes Taiwan’s defense establishment should accelerate acquisitions to attain the following operational capabilities in the next two years (in order of importance): 4,000+ man-portable air defense missiles (e.g., Stinger) 200+ mobile short-range air defense vehicles, with 3x missile reloads (e.g., MADIS, Avenger/Stinger, Antelope/TC-1) 40+ counter-UAS, counter-rocket, artillery, mortar systems, with 10x missile reloads (e.g., MRIC/SkyHunter, Iron Dome/Tamir) 200+ mobile medium-range antiair missile vehicles, with 5x missile reloads (e.g., NASAMS High-Mobility Launcher/AMRAAM, mobile TC-2) 2,000+ man-portable antiarmor missiles, suitable for employment against landing craft (e.g., Javelin) 200+ mobile coastal defense cruise missile vehicles, with 3x missile reloads (e.g., HCDS, NMESIS, HF-2) 2,000+ small, expendable, intelligent autonomous UAS to assist in finding