A new report claims that US Navy SEAL Team Six, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, has been training for more than a year to support Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.
Members of the team, one of only two ultra-elite “Tier 1” special operations forces in the United States, are preparing to deploy to Taiwan in case China's People's Liberation Army crosses the Taiwan Strait and invades the democratic island. The Financial Times reported.
Details of the training taking place at the team's secret base at Dam Neck, near Virginia Beach, remain top secret, as well as how the commandos would be used in the event of war, the British newspaper said.
But SEAL Team Six is often tasked with carrying out America's most sensitive and challenging missions.
On paper, SEAL Team 6 (officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group) exists to test, evaluate, and develop techniques and tactics for a full range of naval warfare. In reality, this special forces unit has garnered attention for decades for conducting some of America's most dangerous and daring covert missions.
The unit is famous for its successful rescue of American Captain Richard Phillips when his container ship was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009, an incident that was the subject of the Tom Hanks film “Captain Phillips.”
Two years later, in 2011, the SEAL teams' legacy was forever established when they carried out a daring nighttime raid on bin Laden's Pakistani compound, killing the mastermind behind al-Qaida's 9/11 attacks.
The Pentagon regularly sends other special operations forces to help train and strengthen Taiwan's military, but the Pentagon says all units “train for a wide range of contingencies.”
While the United States has previously stressed that war with China is “neither imminent nor inevitable,” the U.S. military has significantly accelerated contingency preparations since 2021, when then-commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Phil Davidson warned that China could attack Taiwan within six years.
The CIA sounded a similar warning last year, citing reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping had ordered the military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027.
Beijing considers the island a renegade province that must be reunited under the banner of the Chinese Communist Party, by force if necessary.
Under the Taiwan Relations Act, the United States has an obligation to help Taiwan, a country of 23 million people that produces more than 90 percent of the world's most advanced microchips, defend itself against China.
President Joe Biden has said throughout his term that U.S. forces would come to the aid of allies if Beijing invades.
However, given its policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, it is unclear whether the United States will enter into hostilities with China.
Following China's People's Liberation Army's large-scale military exercises this summer, US Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo warned that the US would destroy any foreign forces attempting to invade through the Taiwan Strait, saying it would turn into a “hellscape”.
Paparo told Japan's Nikkei newspaper at the time that China's invasion was like a “dress rehearsal for an invasion.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington has warned the United States to stop any military actions near Taiwan.
