Taiwan Points Rockets at China — Is an Invasion Now Harder Than Ever?

Описание: Taiwan has conducted a landmark military drill, firing its U.S.-made HIMARS — High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — on its western coastline for the very first time. This stretch of coast, separated from mainland China by the narrow Taiwan Strait, is considered the most likely landing zone in any potential Chinese invasion.

The drill, held in Taichung in central Taiwan, was designed to demonstrate HIMARS' battlefield mobility and its critical "shoot-and-scoot" capability — the ability to fire precision rockets and immediately relocate before enemy radar can lock on and retaliate. Military officials say this dramatically improves the system's survivability in combat.

HIMARS is no stranger to real warfare. It has served as one of Ukraine's most effective strike systems throughout its ongoing conflict with Russia, proving its battlefield value under live combat conditions.

With a strike range of approximately 300 kilometers, Taiwan's HIMARS could reach targets in China's southeastern Fujian province — directly across the strait. Combined with Taiwan's domestically developed Thunderbolt-2000 rocket launchers, which were also fired during the drill, the island's military is building a layered, mobile strike capability designed to engage Chinese forces from the moment they leave port.

Taiwan is pursuing what military analysts call an "asymmetric warfare" strategy — investing in agile, hard-to-detect weapons that can inflict serious damage on a larger invading force, effectively turning the island into a "porcupine."

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and has never ruled out using military force to take it, conducts near-daily naval and air operations around the island. Taiwan's government firmly rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, insisting that only the Taiwanese people can determine their future.

Source: Reuters