US defense giant founder advises Taiwan on asymmetric warfare for cross-strait security

Palmer Luckey, founder of the American defense technology company Anduril, shared thought-provoking insights on the current severe security situation in the Taiwan Strait during a public event in Taipei on the 19th. He bluntly pointed out that the core objective of China's military expansion and deployment is singular: it targets Taiwan and attempts to seize the island through military force. However, facing the overwhelming military pressure from across the strait and the disparity in conventional forces, Taiwan is not without a chance of winning. Citing the history of the American Revolutionary War in particular, Luckey suggested that Taiwan should leverage its home-field geographical advantages, adopt so-called cheating methods and highly flexible asymmetrical warfare thinking, and seek ways to defeat the enemy—much like the American forces flexibly utilized forest cover to combat the regular British army back then.

Analyzing the strategic logic proposed by Luckey in depth, "cheating" and asymmetrical warfare in the modern military context mean breaking conventional rules and avoiding head-on clashes with the enemy in traditional wars of attrition or direct confrontations where the adversary excels. For a long time, China has built an oppressive quantitative advantage over Taiwan in the construction speed of its navy and air force, the number of fighter jets, and the overall scale of conventional weapons. If Taiwan blindly engages in a one-on-one arms race in traditional green-water or blue-water naval and air combat capabilities, it will not only be difficult to sustain financially and resource-wise in the long run, but it will also easily fall into a passive strategic position. Therefore, Luckey's perspective echoes the general consensus in the international military strategy community in recent years regarding Taiwan's defense: Taiwan must accelerate its transition toward developing low-cost, high-efficiency, and high-survival defense capabilities, forcing adversaries to pay an extremely high and unbearable price if they launch an invasion.

This mindset of asymmetrical warfare has gradually become the core guiding principle in Taiwan's recent defense reforms and military buildup planning. Asymmetrical warfare encompasses multiple dimensions, including coastal defense cruise missiles, mobile air defense systems, sea mine laying, unmanned vehicles, and information electronic warfare. Just as Luckey analogized with the history of the American Revolutionary War, the vastly outmatched American militia did not choose to line up for a direct confrontation on open plains with the impeccably aligned and globally dominant British regular army; instead, they utilized familiar terrain, guerrilla tactics, and concealment methods to continuously deplete the enemy's living force and will. The main island of Taiwan possesses a complex and changing geographical environment, highly urbanized townscapes, and the natural barrier of the strait. These innate conditions are exceptional assets for implementing homeland defense, anti-landing operations, and defense in depth. The key lies in how to transform these geographical features into absolute tactical advantages.

Anduril, the company founded by Luckey, is itself a prominent emerging defense tech giant in the United States in recent years, focusing on introducing Silicon Valley technologies such as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, edge computing, and advanced sensors into the traditional defense industry. The rise of such tech enterprises reflects a profound paradigm shift underway within the U.S. defense industrial base. The traditional model relying on large, expensive, and lengthy military hardware platforms is gradually being questioned and replaced by unmanned equipment that emphasizes modularity, low cost, mass production capability, and a high degree of autonomy. Luckey's visit to Taiwan and his defense advice not only represent his personal strategic observations, but to some extent also reflect the active attention paid by the new generation of the U.S. defense technology sector to Indo-Pacific security and the situation in the Taiwan Strait, while attempting to transmit this technological innovation-centric philosophy of asymmetrical warfare to Taiwan's defense decision-makers.

From the macro perspective of geopolitics and global security, how Taiwan builds its own defense capabilities is no longer merely an issue between the two sides of the strait, but a critical pivot affecting the global democratic camp and supply chain security. As external threats intensify, Taiwan must allocate resources for maximum strategic efficiency within limited defense budgets and timeframes. Luckey's advice reminds Taiwan's society and military that when facing a formidable enemy, they must discard traditional myths, boldly adopt unconventional and innovative thinking, and closely integrate technological advantages with home-field geography. Only by forging a defense deterrent capability that makes adversaries perceive profound risks and difficulty in achieving easy success can Taiwan ensure its own security and democratic way of life amidst a volatile international situation. This discussion surrounding asymmetrical warfare will also continue to serve as an important ideological resource in Taiwan's future defense transformation and military preparation process.