U.S. needs to expand joint training team in Taiwan: Retired rear admiral

Washington, May 15 (CNA) The United States should double the size of its joint training team in Taiwan in addition to providing military equipment, as part of efforts to help Taiwan's military face threats posed by China, retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery said Thursday.

Montgomery made the remarks when appearing in front of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Washington as a witness to talk about preventing CCP aggression toward Taiwan.

"We absolutely have to grow the joint training team in Taiwan," said Montgomery, after retired U.S. Army Pacific Commanding General Charles Flynn explained the importance of training.

"That's a U.S. team there. That's about 500 people. Now it needs to be 1000, if we're going to give them billions of dollars in assistance, tens of billions of dollars' worth of U.S. gear. It makes sense that we'd be over there training and working," said Montgomery, who retired in 2017 and now works as senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Flynn, who retired in November 2024, used the Harpoon anti-ship missile launching systems as an example. In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced sales of 100 units of land-based Harpoon launchers to Taiwan during his first term in office.

"We can give them 400 Harpoon systems, but they, if they don't have 400 crews that actually know how to man them, use them, employ them, site them and have a primary, alternate and supplementary firing position. It doesn't matter how many things they have," Flynn told the committee.

Flynn and Montgomery were responding to questions from U.S. Congressman Dusty Johnson, who quoted "If America weakens its commitment to defending Taiwan, then Taiwan may lose the resolve to resist" from a recent article in the Economist.

The Republican congressman from South Dakota also asked whether there is a broad census in Taiwan, given the "split government."

Flynn noted Taiwan's efforts to produce indigenous weapons and said he has seen positive developments "from the political side and the military side" over the last three and a half to four years.

"We have momentum, and we can ill afford to lose the momentum," he said.

Thursday's hearing began with Flynn, Montgomery, and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell giving their respective statements before lawmakers put their questions to the former officials.

"I think it is critical that you focus on what Taiwan needs to do and how we need to support Taiwan, remember that we are the ultimate backstop, and we must keep our capabilities shifting more of our capacity to the Indo Pacific, recognizing that this is where the ultimate challenge to American power is in the 21st century," Campbell said during his opening statement.