As Justin Doubleday records for Inside Defense today ("State Department approves three major weapons sales to Taiwan,"), the US State Department has cleared possible sales of three important tranches of weapons for the government in Taipei:
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Six MS-110 multispectral airborne reconnaissance pods from Collins Aerospace, a unit of Raytheon Technologies, for those new F-16s (that sale was finalized in July) from Lockheed Martin
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Eleven M142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS, they say around here) from Lockheed Martin as well
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135 Standoff Land Attack Missiles, Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) from Boeing
There's a strong, multi-stage signal therein to the communist leadership in Beijing:
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The MS-110 pods are for finding targets. It's not easy to hide from a multispectral sensor. Actually, it's not too hard to hide a single anything, but an invasion fleet—don't even.
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If those targets are on the Taiwanese side of the Strait, then they're the business of the HIMARS launchers, which throw GPS-guided rockets (aren't they really just short-range ballistic missiles?) with submunitions. Two of those launchers, with a twelve-rocket barrage, can blanket a square kilometer, removing invaders about a company at a time.
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If they're not yet across the Strait, note that the US Marines are about to adopt anti-ship missiles for their HIMARS launchers. It's easy enough to bundle those into a subsequent sale, though the Taiwanese are pretty good at making their own anti-ship missiles. Their independence depends on it. As noted above, good luck finding those launchers in the mountainous terrain of the center of the island.
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If they're on the far side of the Strait—ports, airfields, command centers—that's what the SLAM-ERs are for. They're highly precise, so take note: Mainland China will not escape counterattack.
In response, Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Wolf-Warriorism, yammered something about One-China internal affairs. I missed the rest of it. It's never interesting. (See the story on CNN by Jennifer Hansler and Ryan Browne.)
That is, on this point, I agree with Mike Pompeo, and not Hillary Clinton (though I otherwise like a lot of her article). Talking with Mr. Xi's regime has not worked, and shows no indication of working. In contrast, I paraphrase the observation by Clausewitz (which I separately invoked on Tuesday). Sometimes, arms sales are "not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means." And they're definitely commerce! Congratulations to Raytheon, Lockheed, and Boeing on the possible sales. Now go close them, and get your coffee.
James Hasik is a senior fellow in the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University, and a senior fellow in the Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council.
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