Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/09
By: Chiang Chin-yeh and Chiang Yi-ching

Maryland, U.S., Oct. 8 (CNA) Taiwan needs to devote sufficient resources toward its defense, especially

in cost-effective systems that leverage Taiwan's strengths and can help deter China, a U.S. official said at the U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference in Maryland on Monday.

David Helvey, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, said in a speech at the forum that the goal is to create a "distributed, maneuverable, and decentralized force", which he described as "large numbers of small things."

This force should be able to "operate in a degraded electromagnetic environment and under a barrage of missile and air attacks," Helvey said.

The systems best suited to Taiwan's island geography, he suggested, would be highly-mobile coastal defense cruise missiles, short-range air defense, naval mines, small fast-attack craft, mobile artillery, and advanced surveillance assets.    [FULL  STORY]