Commentary
The existential threat to Taiwan is self-apparent, or at least it should be to anyone who has watched how, in recent weeks, China has bracketed the island with missile tests, military exercises, and increasingly hostile incursions by the PLA Air Force. Equally self-evident is Taiwan’s need to beef up its defenses.
Besides the usual requirements for better kinetic weapons—items like modern fighter jets, longer-range missiles, submarines, and the like—Taipei needs to find new force multipliers, capabilities that will increase Taiwan’s chances of defending itself and deter a possible invasion.
Increasingly, these capabilities are things like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, quantum computing, automation and robotics, and the “internet of things.” These technologies will help Taiwan react faster, with vastly improved “battlespace knowledge” and with greater accuracy and lethality….