The following is an edited excerpt from a Morning Wire Weekend Edition interview where Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley sat down with U.S. Navy retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They discussed his recent trip to Taiwan, where he had meetings with senior officials, including the president and senior military leadership. Here are five key takeaways.
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1. America Is Taiwan’s Primary Key Ally
First, they’re very appreciative of the United States. They understand the United States is their key ally and they make that very clear. No one else sells them weapons. No one else stands by them when they’re threatened by the Chinese. That doesn’t mean they don’t get some rhetorical support from the Australians or the Japanese on occasion or from European countries. But when it comes to ship movements, aircraft movements, it’s us. So number one, they get that.
2. Taiwan Will Increase Defense Spending — But Only Buys From America
Number two, Taiwan understands that we expect them to spend more on their defense. So they’re taking their defense spending from about 2.5% this year to 3% next year. Then, I think, they’ll go to 4% and eventually 5%. The irony is, to get the spending up that high, they can only buy the weapons from us. We’re the only country who sells to them.
3. America’s Foreign Military Sales Program Is A “Dumpster Fire”
I say this gently, our foreign military sales program is a dumpster fire. As a result, it takes seven years to get them javelin missiles; eight years to get them stinger, man-portable air missiles. These should take two, three years. So, part of the problem is U.S. foreign military sales and delivery. But the Taiwanese are going to do everything they can to get themselves to three, four, and eventually 5% [Defense spending] by the end of the Trump administration. So that’s a big deal.
4. It Could Take Nine Years For American Weapons To Arrive In Taiwan
Our foreign military sales overseas are hampered by a bureaucratic process inside the Department of Defense and Department of State. They have to work together. They don’t do a great job. It’s also hampered by how we integrate with the weapons providers, like Raytheon or Lockheed Martin, and the back and forth with the host country. For example, we recently did a harpoon sale with Taiwan, an anti-ship cruise missile that’s really critical to the fight. The sale was locked and first approved in 2020. And I’d say the delivery is going to be completed by 2029, if we’re lucky. That should take two, three, four years max — not nine years. So, for military sales, we have a backed up docket with Taiwan alone of $12 billion – it was $18 billion just four years ago. This is way too much. Countries cannot rely on us for timely delivery of weapons if it takes five, seven, or nine years to get weapons.
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5. Taiwan Must Prepare For Non-Military Attacks
Taiwan really understands that, in addition to preparing for the most likely, most dangerous scenario of a cross-strait invasion, they also have to prepare for another most likely scenario — China attacking their societal resilience, their financial systems, their communication systems, their energy systems with diplomatic, economic, cyber and influence operations, not military attacks. While the CCP would hope to break the societal resilience of Taiwan. Taiwan has to fight that. They need to make a lot of investments in that kind of domestic resilience. And then the United States can help as well.
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Catch the full interview with retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery on Morning Wire.
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