The People's Liberation Army of China has increased its readiness for a possible sudden attack on Taiwan.
This was reported by the Financial Times, writes UNN.
Details
According to the media, one of the high-ranking Taiwanese military officials said that the Chinese Air Force and missile units, which will play a role in the invasion of Taiwan, have improved to the point that they can "switch from peacetime to military operations at any moment."
Other representatives of the Taiwan defense department said that the People's Liberation Army's operations now include constant training of amphibious forces near the ports of departure for the invasion of Taiwan, constant readiness of army aviation units that will land in Taiwan, and a new missile system capable of hitting any point of the island.
According to the Taiwan Ministry of Defense, PLA military aircraft enter Taiwan's air defense identification zone more than 245 times a month, compared to less than 10 times a month five years ago.
They also cross the median line in the Taiwan Strait 120 times a month, erasing a once unofficial border. Former chief instructor of the Taiwan Army Command, Yang Tai-yuan, said that to attack Taiwan, Chinese warships "will have to go out into the Pacific Ocean very early" so as not to be trapped closer to China when the war begins.
Last year, the PLAN Navy conducted a build-up of ships in the western Pacific as a rehearsal for this scenario.
A U.S. Department of Defense official said that the PLAN Navy and the Chinese Coast Guard constantly have about a dozen ships deployed around Taiwan. This, combined with neighboring ports, meant that the PLAN Navy and its associated vessels could "move into a blockade position... within hours." A Taiwanese military official said that the presence of warships means that China can launch an air attack without warning.
Taipei is closely monitoring the types of helicopters that the PLA uses on destroyers or Type 075 landing ships, as they can drop special forces on Taiwan.
Thanks to these advanced naval deployments, they have shortened both the distance and the time" to Taiwan,
However, military officials and experts said that the PLA has also made significant progress in other areas. According to U.S. intelligence, in 2019, President Xi Jinping instructed the PLA to develop the ability to invade Taiwan by 2027.
Speaking at a forum in Sedona, Paparo said that, obviously, some of the goals have already been achieved, referring to its missile forces and the satellite groups that it has put into space.
In 2015, Xi began restructuring the command structure and units of the PLA. Experts said that the large-scale exercises that the PLA has conducted around Taiwan since Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited it in 2022, showed that it is mastering joint operations between its services, which was the main goal of this reform.
Xi's reforms broke many large army units into smaller and more flexible ones, including six amphibious combined arms brigades deployed along the coast opposite Taiwan.
This reflects the PLA's renewed focus on Taiwan and lays the foundation for real combat capabilities
A high-ranking Taiwanese military official said that the PLA would only need "minimal time to regroup" for an attack, as it is "constantly training at its bases and... is already based very close to the ports where they were supposed to land."
Amphibious units can operate more independently, with more diverse transport equipment, intelligence capabilities, and a wider range of weaponry. They include the PCH-191, a multiple launch rocket system with a range of 300 km that can hit any point in Taiwan from the coast of China.
It has the same range as short-range missiles, but is cheaper, can be reloaded faster and is more difficult to detect because it can be launched from trucks.
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According to Taiwanese officials, these launchers, first used immediately after Pelosi's visit, are now widely deployed along the entire coast opposite Taiwan and have since been used in all Taiwan-led exercises.
The launchers can be used by ground forces during the initial bombardment to disable Taiwan's air defense systems, as well as by amphibious units to strike small Taiwanese coastal units designed to combat the invasion fleet.
This kind of opportunity can be used without much training
With their help, amphibious or army aviation units could start from a much higher starting point. This is very difficult to resist