https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/fy25-budget-hinders-3-key-us-army-capabilities/
The U.S. Army is heavily involved with the deployment of the U.S. military to Taiwan. It’s now been announced and recognized that Special Forces troops have been deployed to Kinmen, only 4,000 feet from China.
The troops also appear to be on the Penghu Islands (a Taiwanese island county right off of Taiwan proper) and on Taiwan’s main island. The 1st Special Forces Group out of Ft. Lewis, Washington, appears to be the initial contributor to these operational detachments.
On Kinmen islands, the Special Operation forces could serve several possible roles. Foreign Internal Defense (FID) is a core Special Operations mission where local troops are trained to high levels of expertise, such as the use of long-range anti-material rifles and Javelin missiles to destroy any fast boats attempting to approach Kinmen.
There is only one airfield on Kinmen, and it would likely be a primary initial target for a Chinese invasion. Organizing the Taiwan forces to repel any raid on the airport via airborne or heliborne troops or spies is also a likely mission for the Army Special Forces.
Another mission could be Special Reconnaissance, where the American Special Operators are the eyes and ears of the Indo-Pacific Commander, Admiral John Aquilino.
The 1st Special Forces Group has a battalion on Okinawa, a Japanese island very close to Taiwan, and the other three battalions are back at Ft. Lewis. The 1st Special Forces and other Special Operations units in the Western Pacific operate under the command and control of Special Operations Command Pacific (SOCPAC) at Camp Smith, Hawaii.
One additional crucial mission for the Special Forces is unconventional warfare (UW). This is where they would play a key role if Kinmen were possibly overrun in a Chinese invasion. In UW, the Special Forces Operational Detachments would help Taiwanese forces resist any occupying forces.
The Secretary of the Army, of all things, has targeted U.S. Army Special Operations for force-level cuts. This cut masks the real issue—the worst recruiting and retention levels in the Army since the 1970s.
The leadership at the Defense Department uses every possible excuse except for the real causal factor— the “w” word: “wokism.”