How PLA could use ‘decapitation’ strike to counter Taiwan’s ‘porcupine’ strategy

Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan – also known as the “porcupine” strategy – could pose a significant threat to a PLA campaign against the island, a mainland Chinese military magazine has warned.

But the People’s Liberation Army could counter that strategy with an American-style “decapitation” strike, according to the article in the November issue of Naval and Merchant Ships.

It analysed how the porcupine strategy played out in Taiwan’s annual military exercise in July – known as Han Kuang – which was its biggest ever, and also looked at possible countermeasures the PLA could take.

The asymmetric warfare strategy would see Taiwan become like a porcupine – covered in “quills” such as lightweight, shoulder-launched air defence missiles to fend off the much larger and better armed PLA.

Influenced by US military advisers and backed by American arms sales, the strategy relies on deploying a vast number of small and low-cost combat platforms like FIM-92 Stinger portable air defence missiles and Switchblade 300 anti-tank loitering munitions, according to the article.

They would be used to launch “successive waves of attacks” on high-value targets like tanks, warships and radar systems in a war of attrition.

It said the aim was to turn the island into a fortress of layered defence, making use of the urban landscape and geography to drag the PLA into a protracted and costly conflict.

The article said Taiwan’s military was integrating new weapons – specifically Himars rocket systems and M1A2T tanks – with Taiwanese-made equipment like Land Sword II air defence missiles.

South China Morning Post