Could the US Navy, Japan and South Korea Destroy a Chinese Amphibious Attack on Taiwan?

Rep. Rob Wittman (VA) sits down for an exclusive interview with Warrior Maven’s, Kris Osborn.

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

(Washington, D.C.) With tensions potentially higher than they have been in years, and Chinese weapons, planes and warships conducting war drills encircling Taiwan, the possibility of a massive Chinese-US confrontation may now look more realistic, if not imminent.

Several Pentagon reports and think tank studies have in recent months raised the question of whether Taiwan could quickly be taken over by China, creating a “fait-accompli” circumstance wherein any effort to remove occupying Chinese forces by force could introduce potentially unprecedented and catastrophic consequences.

Much of this simply seems to pertain to a simple, self-evident question … could U.S., Japanese, South Korean and Australian forces get there fast enough? Could there be an effective, coordinated multi-domain response within the crucial, and likely quite small time window afforded during a Chinese attack? How quickly would a Chinese attack be detected? How far away are response forces?

Could Chinese air power and carriers in the Taiwan strait in striking distance of Japan successfully defend a possible Taiwan occupation from US and Japanese defensive counterattacks? Certainly a question including a number of variables. Chinese carriers and amphibs could be successful in any amphibious assault to take over Taiwan, if US and Japanese forces could not get there in time or simply were not close enough to intervene in an impactful way. This is particularly true when it comes to air power, meaning should the US and its allies have sufficient numbers of F-35s in position to respond, a Chinese amphibious attack would likely have a lot of trouble succeeding.