TAIPEI, July 1 (Eric R Stone) – New research argues Taiwan should “consider comprehensively outfitting front-line garrison troops with anti-tank weaponry (MANPATS)” in case of an amphibious invasion from China.

In the report from the June 25th issue of Army Bimonthly, LTC Luo Xiaoquan says that in a modern amphibious invasion, enemy troops would primarily rely on Type-05 amphibious assault tanks to storm the beaches, and that defenders therefore be outfitted with MANPATS.

Luo is a lieutenant colonel-ranked military instructor for the Department of Military Arts and Science at the Army Command and Staff College of Taiwan’s National Defense University, where he also got his Master’s in strategic studies.

“The balance of military power,” LTC Luo wrote, “has long since shifted in [China’s] favor in all areas, but particularly in regard to naval and air forces. So we need to be thinking about how ground troops are going to handle a modern amphibious invasion with naval and air forces that are lacking.”

Luo says that the modern Chinese units likely to be used in an amphibious invasion include the Yuzhao-Class (Type-071) Amphibious Transport Dock; the Yulan-Class (Type-076) Landing Helicopter Dock; and the Yushen-Class (Type-075) Amphibious Assault Ship.

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“These are deployed with Amphibious Combined Arms Brigade and Army Marine Corps troops, whose primary outfit are [Type-05 tanks] – so these are the first forces ROC front-line garrison troops are going to meet in an amphibious invasion.”

“In the past, the first echelons of amphibious invaders were primarily made up of [infantry] personnel, which rifles and machine guns posed a sufficient threat to. 

“With these [Type-05 tanks] though, front-line ROC forces need to transition to using weapons that pose the greatest possible threat to the enemy. And that means moving away from the traditional method of individual units firing on the enemy with rifles and machine guns from the prone position on the beach.”

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