Taiwan looks for ways to defend itself as US weapons supply hit by Gaza, Ukraine
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. PINGTUNG, Taiwan—Taiwan’s military recently set up live-fire exercises on this stretch of coastline facing China to show off half a dozen brand-new Humvee armored vehicles mounted with antitank missile launchers—part of its recent delivery of weapons from the U.S. But the missiles designed for use with the launchers didn’t arrive with the shipment.
Instead, the missiles that the soldiers test-fired into the choppy waters of the Taiwan Strait were an older variety with a shorter range. The missing missiles, not scheduled to land in Taiwan until the end of the year, are among several weapons delivery delays the military has partly attributed to strains on the U.S. defense industry.
The continuing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, both of which involve countries the U.S. supports, have highlighted the limitations of the Western military-industrial base and raised a critical question for Taiwan’s survival: What if the island democracy finds itself short of weapons in the event of a conflict with China? For decades, Washington has been Taipei’s most important backer, supplying the Taiwanese armed forces with weapons to deter and defend against potential aggression by Beijing. China claims the island as its territory and hasn’t ruled out the use of force in asserting control over it.
As it churns out weaponry to supply two wars, the American defense industry has struggled with a string of challenges, including shortages of chips, machinery and skilled workers. At one point this year, supply bottlenecks had delayed delivery of weapon systems to Taiwan valued at more than $20 billion, according to Eric Gomez, a defense analyst at the Washington-based Cato Institute. “The hard truth is that the current
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