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Seal Staff 6, the clandestine US Navy commando unit that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, has been coaching for missions to assist Taiwan whether it is invaded by China, in accordance with individuals acquainted with the preparations.
The elite Navy particular forces workforce, which is tasked with among the navy’s most delicate and troublesome missions, has been planning and coaching for a Taiwan battle for greater than a 12 months at Dam Neck, its headquarters at Virginia Seaside about 250km south-east of Washington.
The key coaching underlines the US’s elevated give attention to boosting deterrence to make China suppose twice about attacking Taiwan, whereas stepping up preparations in case President Xi Jinping orders the Folks’s Liberation Military to assault or invade the island.
The preparations have solely grown since Phil Davidson, the US Indo-Pacific commander on the time, warned in 2021 that China might assault Taiwan inside six years.
Whereas US officers stress that battle with China is “neither imminent nor inevitable”, the US navy has accelerated contingency preparations because the PLA quickly modernises to fulfill Xi’s order that it have the aptitude by 2027 to take Taiwan by drive.
Seal Staff 6 is a “tier one” drive — essentially the most elite within the US navy — alongside the Military’s storied Delta Drive. It reviews to Joint Particular Operations Command, which is a part of Particular Operations Command.
In one other mission that has helped cement Navy Seal Staff 6 in navy historical past, the unit rescued Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama container ship taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009.
The Pentagon has in recent times additionally despatched extra common particular forces to Taiwan for missions that embrace offering coaching for the Taiwanese navy.
However the Seal Staff 6 actions are way more delicate as a result of its covert missions are extremely categorised. The individuals acquainted with the workforce’s planning didn’t present particulars concerning the missions for which it’s getting ready.
Particular Operations Command, which hardly ever discusses Seal Staff 6, referred questions on its Taiwan planning to the Pentagon, which didn’t touch upon particular particulars. A spokesperson stated the defence division and its forces “put together and practice for a variety of contingencies”.
Because the menace from terror teams has receded, particular operations forces have joined the remainder of the US navy and the intelligence neighborhood in intensifying their give attention to China.
CIA director Invoice Burns instructed the Monetary Occasions final week that 20 per cent of his funds was dedicated to China, a 200 per cent rise over three years.
“That Seal Staff 6 is planning for doable Taiwan-related missions ought to come as no shock,” stated Sean Naylor, creator of Relentless Strike, a e-book on Joint Particular Operations Command who runs a web-based nationwide safety publication, The Excessive Facet.
“With the Pentagon’s reorientation over the previous few years to give attention to nice energy competitors, it was inevitable that even the nation’s most elite counterterrorism models would hunt down roles in that enviornment, for that path results in relevance, missions and cash,” Naylor added.
Taiwan is essentially the most delicate problem in US-China relations, and tensions over the island have been a essential a part of backchannel discussions between US nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi, China’s high international coverage official, over the previous 12 months, in accordance with US and Chinese language officers who described the talks to the FT.
China says it stays dedicated to peaceable “reunification” with Taiwan however has not dominated out using drive. Xi final 12 months instructed a European official that he believed Washington was making an attempt to goad China into conflict.
Washington is obliged to assist Taiwan present for its personal defence below the Taiwan Relations Act. The US has lengthy had a coverage of “strategic ambiguity” wherein it doesn’t say if it could come to the defence of Taiwan. However President Joe Biden has on a number of events stated US forces would defend Taiwan within the face of an unprovoked assault from China.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, the pinnacle of US Indo-Pacific command, lately stated the US navy would flip the Taiwan Strait into an “unmanned hellscape” if China was about to assault. He stated it could contain unmanned submarines, ships and drones to make it a lot tougher for the PLA to launch an invasion throughout the strait, which separates Taiwan from China.
The Pentagon stated the US was dedicated to the “one China coverage” below which it recognises Beijing as the only authorities of China whereas acknowledging — with out accepting — the Chinese language place that Taiwan is a part of China.
