Six miles. A handful of U.S. Special Operations soldiers will be stationed on an island controlled by Taiwan, just six miles from mainland China.
The United Daily News in Taiwan reported U.S. Army Green Berets will deploy in three-man teams to a couple of amphibious camps, acting as consultants to further train Taiwan’s own special forces. The self-governing, main island of Taiwan is about 100 miles from mainland China. It also controls Penghu, located about 30 miles to the west, and Kinmen, just six miles from China, and within range of various weapons like missiles and artillery.
Special operators from the U.S. military have been helping train Taiwan’s military for some time now.
The training is in anticipation of a potential invasion from China, which sees Taiwan as a break-off region to be reunited by force if necessary.
In 2021, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen became the first Taiwanese leader in 40 years to publicly acknowledge the deployment of U.S. troops in Taiwan. But in those previous trainings, the U.S. forces were more or less visiting. 2023’s National Defense Authorization Act set aside funds, though, under the Special Operations Forces Liaison Element to station troops at Kinmen and Penghu permanently.
Since last year, a large portion of the training focused on teaching Taiwan’s special forces how to operate the Black Hornet nano drone, a micro-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle designed to help special forces gather intelligence.
The Black Hornets are highly advanced drones that can fit in the palm of one’s hand, but still maintain flight in relatively strong winds.
“The Green Berets are a defensive type of special forces, employed to counteract enemy infiltration, especially when integrated with Taiwan’s amphibious reconnaissance battalions,” said Su Tzu-yun, the director of defense strategy and resources at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The U.S. Department of Defense and the Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan are declining comment on the deployment.
On the whole, U.S. forces are on track for a busy year in the Pacific.
The United States and Thailand are continuing their 43-year tradition of co-sponsored military training events with Cobra Gold currently underway. It’s the largest joint exercise in mainland Asia, and the longest running international exercise in the world. Thirty partner nations including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea have troops at this year’s Cobra Gold.
South Korea is also hosting U.S. troops for its Freedom Shield exercises. The 11-day event is designed to help prepare South Korean troops in the event North Korea launches a nuclear weapon. A lot of the drill involves the cyber domain, but some field exercises are also expected.
Meanwhile, U.S. Marines are getting plenty of field exercise in Okinawa. Marines and ground soldiers from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are practicing island defense and island recapture for this year’s Iron Fist exercise. The force-on-force simulation pits the allies against each other in various jungle combat scenarios; skills which will need to be sharp if China does indeed decide to try and take Taiwan by force.
