Defence ministry report says US experts will join 130 Taiwan planning sessions and map war games

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense says in its latest written report that American defence specialists will take part in 130 sessions with Taiwanese commands, including site surveys and map-based war games, the Liberty Times reported on 5 October. The report lists 50 in-person meetings and 80 video conferences under the Taiwan-US Defense Ministry Joint Cooperation Assessment, a programme that runs from 2026 to 2028.

The sessions will be led by the Pentagon's Office of the Under Secretary for Policy together with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research centre known for modelling and simulation, plus specialists drawn in for particular topics. They will meet the Joint Staff, the service commands and front-line units to discuss operational problems, inspect sites, run tabletop war games and produce both qualitative and quantitative assessments, according to the report.

The ministry's report also states that one representative from the policy office and one from the institute will be stationed long term at the ministry's headquarters in Taipei. That arrangement was first described on 3 October by an unnamed senior military official quoted by the Liberty Times.

What the report adds

When the stationing plan first surfaced, the ministry told the Central News Agency only that Taiwan and the United States were deepening military exchanges to improve overall defensive effectiveness and resilience, and that it would not explain the details. The written report now puts the meeting schedule and the long-term posting in the ministry's own account of the programme.

According to the report, the ministry's Office of Integrated Assessment has budgeted for the programme since 2022. The Pentagon policy office commissions the institute to run it, and the institute brings experts from Indo-Pacific Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Ground Intelligence Center to Taiwan to study defensive operations with the ministry, the General Staff and the services.

The ministry says findings from the past three years have been written into the annual Han Kuang exercises and into the test objectives of each service's training. It credits the work with helping assess possible PLA courses of action against Taiwan, revising joint operations plans, reviewing force requirements, building more resilient command and control, adjusting unit deployments within operational zones, and dispersing and pre-positioning strategic stocks.

Budget

The ministry based its budget on a US price quotation. The three-year programme totals NT$471 million, of which NT$152.5 million is assigned to enlarging the research team, holding the 130 sessions and covering the costs of the two long-term postings. The South China Morning Post reported that the money also covers consultancy fees, travel, research equipment, data collection and interpretation for classified meetings.

The Liberty Times account refers to the sessions both as this year's plan and as the use of next year's allocation, and the ministry has not publicly clarified the timing. The report gave no names for the two US representatives and no date for their arrival.

Why it matters

The South China Morning Post noted that American personnel in Taiwan have generally worked as trainers or through the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's de facto embassy. The posts described in the ministry report would instead sit inside the ministry and feed directly into operational planning, war-gaming and the assessments that shape Han Kuang, according to the Liberty Times account of the report.

The SCMP added that the plan could anger Beijing and has raised questions in Taiwan about policymaking autonomy, military secrecy and the growth of the budget. It said the arrangement, if confirmed, would mark a significant change from the existing US military presence on the island.