US Navy SEALs’ Secret Mission: The Elite Unit Trained to Defend Taiwan from China’s Growing Threat
Cantonese Group Report: US Navy SEALs Train to Defend Taiwan
The US military has stepped up its efforts to prepare contingency plans and dispatched more conventional special forces to Taiwan to perform tasks, including assisting in training the Taiwanese military, as the People’s Liberation Army rapidly modernizes.
According to a report by the Financial Times, the US Navy’s Seal Team 6, which killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011, has been training and planning for more than a year at its Dam Neck headquarters, about 250 kilometers southeast of Washington, in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
The primary objectives of the training program are to strengthen deterrence and make China think twice about using force against Taiwan, and to enhance preparations in case Chinese President Xi Jinping suddenly orders the People’s Liberation Army to attack Taiwan.
SEAL Team 6 is part of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which is part of the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). As the secret missions it is responsible for are highly confidential, the Financial Times said that people familiar with the matter did not reveal more mission details.
Sean Naylor, author of “Relentless Strike,” a book about JSOC, stated, “It’s not surprising that SEAL Team 6 is preparing for a mission that could involve Taiwan.”
The US Military Counters the Modernization of the People’s Liberation Army
In 2021, Phil Davidson, then commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warned that China might attack Taiwan within six years. Although Washington officials emphasized that war with China was “neither imminent nor inevitable,” the US military has stepped up its pace to prepare contingency plans and dispatched more conventional special forces to Taiwan to perform tasks, including assisting in training the Taiwanese military.
SEAL Team 6 is a Tier 1 special mission unit, the highest level of the U.S. special operations forces. It is the most elite force responsible for carrying out the most sensitive and difficult tasks, and is on par with the Army’s Delta Force. In addition to killing Bin Laden, it also successfully rescued Richard Phillips, an American captain of the container ship Maersk Alabama, when Somali pirates hijacked him in 2009.
Source: RFA