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Seal Group 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 line with folks aware of the preparations.
The elite Navy particular forces workforce, which is tasked with a number of 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 Seashore 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 may 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 potential by 2027 to take Taiwan by drive.
Seal Group 6 is a “tier one” drive — essentially the most elite within the US navy — alongside the Military’s storied Delta Drive. It studies to Joint Particular Operations Command, which is a part of Particular Operations Command.
In one other mission that has helped cement Navy Seal Group 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 embody offering coaching for the Taiwanese navy.
However the Seal Group 6 actions are way more delicate as a result of its covert missions are extremely categorised. The folks aware of the workforce’s planning didn’t present particulars concerning the missions for which it’s getting ready.
Particular Operations Command, which not often discusses Seal Group 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 prepare for a variety of contingencies”.
Because the risk 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 informed the Monetary Occasions final week that 20 per cent of his price range was dedicated to China, a 200 per cent rise over three years.
“That Seal Group 6 is planning for attainable Taiwan-related missions ought to come as no shock,” stated Sean Naylor, writer of Relentless Strike, a e book on Joint Particular Operations Command who runs an internet nationwide safety publication, The Excessive Aspect.
“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 search out 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 important a part of backchannel discussions between US nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi, China’s prime international coverage official, over the previous 12 months, in line 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 the usage of drive. Xi final 12 months informed a European official that he believed Washington was attempting to goad China into warfare.
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” through which 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, just 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.
