![]() The loss of the carriers alone – the US has only 11 total, and each carries at least 5,000 souls - would have potentially disastrous results on the nation’s ability to project power abroad. “But, the US takes a lot of losses… In a lot of games, the US will lose almost its entire global fleet of tactical aviation.”ĬSIS had not finished calculating the number of assets lost across all its games by the time of publication, but, in general, project staff said the US usually loses around 500 aircraft, 20 surface ships and two aircraft carriers per game - a staggering loss unseen for the US since World War II, in just a matter of weeks. “It is a very tough sell for China such that if Taiwan resisted and the US came to Taiwan’s aid, there’s an extremely low possibility that China would be successful,” said Matthew Cancian, who partnered with CSIS as one of the wargame’s chief architects. But any successes would be marred by heavy losses on both sides in terms of ships, planes, submarines and, most importantly, people. The simulation made some significant assumptions, but the results so far suggest that if the US intervened, it could likely prevent a complete takeover or at least reach a stalemate. The goal of the wargames - determining what would happen if China tried to take Taiwan through military force - is both an existential one for America’s security posture and an unintentionally timely one. It’s not a pleasant scene, but it is a realistic one, according to a series of wargames hosted in early August at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a DC-based think tank. It’s a tragedy the kind the US has rarely faced for decades, but this far into the first major war between the US and China, with tens of thousands of lives committed to the conflict, the grim reality is this: There is no turning back for anyone. It will need to be resupplied soon or face long odds in continuing to repel the invaders.ĭespite the risks, the US sends in a C-17 Globemaster to restock the Marines’ precious supply of missiles - and the plane is summarily shot down by the Chinese. The MLR’s land-based, anti-ship missiles have slowed the Chinese fleet’s advances considerably, but the unit is running low on ammunition. WASHINGTON - A US Marine Littoral Regiment stationed in southern Taiwan is holding off hostile forces conducting an amphibious invasion near Tainan City. (Original image of wargame map courtesy of CSIS original photograph by Ashley Pon/Getty Images) A recent CSIS wargame explored potential outcomes of a China-Taiwan-US conflict.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |