Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Thursday introduced a bill called the Deterring Chinese Preemptive Strikes Act that would “direct the U.S. Department of Defense to harden U.S. facilities in the Indo-Pacific to help further deter a preemptive strike against U.S. forces and assets in the region by China ahead of an invasion of Taiwan.”
Rubio’s office said the bill was necessary because the Biden administration “appears to be more concerned about not antagonizing China instead of taking the steps needed to protect American servicemembers from future attacks.”
“Hope is not a strategy. We need to proactively protect our military facilities worldwide. Hardening our assets in the Indo-Pacific is a commonsense way to protect our interests and deter hostile actions aimed at the U.S. or our allies,” Rubio said when introducing the bill.
The bill noted that wargames conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and other think tanks found China would likely begin an invasion of Taiwan by targeting American bases in the Indo-Pacific region with missile strikes.
The CSIS analysis concluded that swift intervention by U.S. and Allied forces would be crucial to thwarting a Chinese invasion, and those forces would require a large inventory of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) to counter the invasion force. U.S. warplanes would require access to airfields in the Indo-Pacific region to launch and rearm.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52) launches a missile during a live-fire exercise. Barry is underway conducting operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific while assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15 the Navy’s largest forward-deployed DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s largest principal force (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Askia Collins).
It seems logical that China would need to neutralize U.S. airbases, and the considerable qualitative advantage currently enjoyed by American fighters, before invading Taiwan. If Chinese planners believe U.S. assets are so well-fortified that neutralizing them with preemptive strikes is not feasible, the likelihood of Beijing launching an invasion is reduced.
CSIS concluded that even a successful defense of Taiwan would come at “great cost,” including “dozens of ships, hundreds of aircraft, and thousands of personnel” lost by the U.S. and its allies. Taiwan’s “degraded” military would struggle to defend “a badly damaged economy on an island without electricity and basic services,” while the Chinese navy would be in “shambles” after suffering thousands of its own casualties.
Rubio’s bill requires the Secretary of Defense to “conduct a classified survey to identify each United States aircraft shelter in the Indo-Pacific region,” with an eye toward improving their defenses against “missile, aerial drone, or other form of attack by the People’s Republic of China.”
The Secretary of Defense would have to present his report to Congress within 120 days and a plan for improving aircraft shelters within 60 days after that.
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