HONG KONG \u2014 The United States and Taiwan are expected to roll out their latest hardware and use elite Taiwanese troops under a joint project to prepare for asymmetric warfare in case the island government\u2019s long-time political rival China attacks, according to military experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That effort, the Joint Firepower Cooperation Center, as first reported by Taiwan\u2019s United Daily News late last month, would help coordinate a Taiwanese defense against the People\u2019s Liberation Army forces ahead of 2027, when some American think tanks believe China will have sufficient attack capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United States would likely offer military equipment made by some of its major contractors to the Joint Firepower Cooperation Center, the latest preparedness measure as Beijing steps up military pressure, according to Taiwanese media reports and analysts in Taipei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Northrop Grumman, for example, has already installed a medium-caliber ammunition test range in Taiwan, letting the island\u2019s defense ministry run tests on \u201cglobal industry standards\u201d and allowing transfers of technology to support home-grown hardware, the de facto U.S. embassy, the American Institute in Taiwan, wrote on its website on Jan. 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow American contractor Anduril has also set up an \u201cinitiative\u201d to find local suppliers for key components for its Ghost-X autonomous air vehicle, the website says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deliveries from previously agreed U.S. arms sales from Taiwan could be added to the cooperation effort as those deals lead to deliveries, said Huang Chung-ting, assistant research fellow with the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan, for its part, would contribute \u201celite troops,\u201d and Washington might assign personnel in Guam or elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region to help as \u201cthey understand Taiwan\u2019s military status,\u201d Huang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big idea is to help Taiwan practice asymmetric air and sea warfare, the strategy where a numerically weaker force fights off a stronger one through unconventional means, analysts say. China\u2019s military is significantly larger than Taiwan\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the event of a kinetic conflict with China, Taiwan has no chance of succeeding at a traditional strategy of air superiority,\u201d said Bethany Allen, head of China investigations with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut as we\u2019ve seen in Ukraine, a militarily weaker actor can successfully defend against an invasion through air denial,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIn Taiwan\u2019s case, a strategy of air denial could be especially effective, since Taiwan is an island and no invasion by land route can occur. To that end, surface to air missiles, drone swarms, and other anti-aircraft weapons could be very effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwan, though it has missiles and batteries, lacks certain military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance \u201ccapacity,\u201d said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Taiwan\u2019s Tamkang University. The military could particularly use improvements in interceptions and early warnings, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think a joint collaboration would provide Taiwan with better targeting and better signaling,\u201d the professor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China, about 100 miles away from Taiwan at its closest point, sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has not ruled out military force if other unification efforts fail. Since August 2022 it has flown military aircraft near the island almost daily and carried out seven large-scale drills at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019d need to avoid letting the PLA\u2019s units challenge Taiwanese airspace, it would be that kind of goal,\u201d Huang Chung-ting said. If the firepower cooperation effort worked out, he said, \u201ccoordination between weapons and personnel would be all the better\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither side\u2019s military has elaborated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii declined to comment in late January but pointed to online news reports indicating that the United States would not deploy troops to the joint firepower center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A media liaison with Taiwan\u2019s Ministry of National Defense said last week it was \u201cinconvenient to disclose details\u201d about the cooperation center but that it had already \u201csystemized\u201d and \u201cdeepened\u201d cooperation with the U.S. military to strengthen its capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 1950, the United States has sold Taiwan nearly $50 billion in defense \u201cequipment and services\u201d, the Council on Foreign Relations think tank says in a 2024 study. The U.S. government had troops in Taiwan until 1979, the year it switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing, but Washington still considers the island a quiet security partner in view of China\u2019s growing strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beijing has indicated that it\u2019s unfazed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taiwanese weapons, even if \u201ccoordinated\u201d under the firepower cooperation center, \u201care not that advanced\u201d and \u201cno match for the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army\u201d, the Beijing-based Global Times said Jan. 26, quoting a Chinese military expert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taiwan, for its part, would contribute \u201celite troops,\u201d and Washington might assign personnel in Guam or elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region to help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":120494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":45,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[45,160,11,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[463],"class_list":["post-72350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DQSY6MBWJBFDZHJLSICNJBP7SI","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/asia-pacific\/2026\/02\/02\/taiwan-us-firepower-center-to-hone-asymmetric-warfare-tactics\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n