Yesterday, an admiral of the United States Indo-Pacific Command revealed the existence of a strategy called “Hellscape” to prevent a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, in which a significant deployment of unmanned aerial and naval vehicles would play a crucial role.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, in an interview with the Washington Post, stated that although he cannot divulge much information about the strategy, he assured that it is efficient and “real.” This strategy includes the deployment of unmanned air, naval, surface and submarine means that would surround the island through the Taiwan Strait as the first line of defense, saving time. “I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hell using a series of classified capabilities.”“said the Admiral. “This way I can make their lives miserable for a month, which will give me time for the rest.”
This theory is aligned with the decision of the United States Department of Defense to deploy a significant number of autonomous systems in the long term. In this context, the Replicator program, which has received USD 1 billion, focuses on the economic production of a major drone company, taking advantage of the experience left by the war between Russia and Ukraine.
As has been observed over the years, unmanned aerial vehicles have played a fundamental role on the battlefield, understanding that these technologies have become essential for causing a disproportionate amount of damage in relation to their overall costs.
“INDOPACOM components have been experimenting with many of these unmanned capabilities for between five and ten years. They will be an asymmetric advantage. So the operational concepts that we are working on are going to help amplify our advantages in this theater… there is a term, hellscape, that we use” declared in another instance Admiral John Aquilino, head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command.
The statements about this strategy emerged weeks after China carried out one of the most relevant military exercises of the decade, where a large number of air and naval assets surrounded the island of Taiwan, demonstrating the power of the Asian giant and its future intentions.
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