Harrington took a seat opposite him at the table. “It’s fine, Jim. Sorry I couldn’t meet earlier — family commitment. I’m guessing this meeting has something to do with that big EDEP exercise scheduled for spring?”
He paused briefly, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “Call me paranoid, Jim, but having exercises in the South China Sea, North Pacific, Middle East, and Eastern Europe — all at once? You guys at the White House must be chewing glass by now.” Harrington’s gallows humor surfaced predictably, drawing a weary smile from Batista.
“Something like that,” Batista laughed. “With the election over, I was hoping this spring exercise was the only thing we’d have to worry about. Have you seen the size of this thing? We’re talking about the entire Eurasian Defense and Economic Pact flexing at once — Russia and China leading the charge with their junior partners all playing along. Damn, if you thought the REFORGER exercises in the eighties were big — I’m just glad the Europeans finally got serious about rearming a while back. They’re asking if we’d consider running a beefed-up EuroDefender exercise this year. I think it’s doable and the President will likely go for it too.”
“Makes sense, given what EDEP has become,” Harrington nodded. “Four years since Moscow and Beijing signed that pact, and look at them now — free movement of people and capital across member states, integrated supply chains, and a mutual defense clause that makes NATO’s Article 5 look conservative. From what I’ve heard, the Japanese are thinking this exercise might be a decoy for an attempt to seize the Miyako Islands. A few contacts I have in Saudi told me that the crown prince, MBS, thinks the Iranians are going to make a play to further consolidate their control of Iraq or maybe try to reconstitute that Achaemenid Empire the new regime’s been touting since coming to power.”
Harrington leaned forward. “No one in the Middle East is comfortable with the Iranians, Afghanis, and Pakistanis being part of EDEP. Having them backed by Russian military tech and Chinese economic muscle? That’s a nightmare scenario. And don’t get me started on North Korea having free access to Chinese ports and Russian energy. If BRICS and the old Warsaw Pact had a child raised on steroids, it’d be EDEP.”
Batista laughed at the analogy, but his expression quickly sobered. “Yeah, except this version spans from Vladivostok to Tehran, Pyongyang to Islamabad. Hell, with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka signed on, they’ve got the Bay of Bengal practically surrounded. As they say, amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. For all of our sakes, I’m hoping this exercise is just them testing their new integrated command structure and supply chains, not a lead-up to something more.”
He paused, then added, “But there’s another wrinkle. NSA picked up something interesting — backed up by our friends in Tokyo and Seoul. Looks like Beijing’s planning to propose some kind of new customs inspection regime at the People’s Congress in March.”
“Customs inspection?” Harrington’s eyebrows rose. “What kind of scope are we talking about?”
“That’s the thing — we don’t have all the details yet. From what we can piece together, they’re framing it as a drug enforcement initiative. But, Jim, you and I both know if they implement something like that, Taiwan’s going to be caught in the net.”
“A drug enforcement action that just happens to give them legal cover to board and inspect any vessel they want,” Harrington said slowly. “Including ships bound for Taiwan.”
“Exactly. Until the proposal actually drops or they release more details, we’re operating on fragments. But between this and the EDEP exercises…” Batista shook his head. “That brings me to the reason I called you here. That document we discussed a while back, the one that says ‘break glass in case of emergency’… well, the President considers this an emergency.” Batista slid a folder across the table to him.
Harrington opened it, raising an eyebrow when he saw the letterhead. His eyes quickly read it, noting the language, the monies allocated, and the waivers for ITARS and export-controlled items.
“Unfortunately, recent events have compressed our timeline,” Batista continued. “Between Beijing’s rhetoric, this recent customs announcement, and the ongoing demonstrations on Kinmen and Matsu, it’s increasingly looking like they’re gearing up to do something stupid. We need to be ready for whatever it is.”
Batista pointed to the document. “Marcus, this supersedes your previous authorization. President Ashford has removed any and all procurement restrictions. You now have direct acquisition authority for the full suite of autonomous systems.”
Harrington nodded, continuing to scan the document with practiced efficiency, mentally cataloging the expanded authorities. “The Anduril package is substantial. Fury combat drones, Lattice C2 architecture, autonomous interceptors—”
“Everything,” Batista interjected. “Plus the newest generation of Epirus Leonidas counterdrone systems and Saronic’s coastal defense platforms. Full-spectrum electronic warfare capabilities. The whole arsenal. We can’t go light on this — we have to go all in if we’re going to make it work.”
“Good, and the funding mechanism?”
Batista pulled another folder from the classified bag he’d brought and slid it across the table. “This is your funding document and authorities. You have four-point-eight billion dollars to spend. It’s being channeled through three separate funding vehicles. Defense Production Act authorities have been invoked with the primary contractors on anything we need that we don’t already have on hand or in the production pipeline.”
Marcus whistled softly. “Damn, you know this is a significant escalation from our current footprint of slowly and steadily boiling the frog, right?”
Batista shrugged. “We’re adapting to overcome. The timeline has changed, but not the President’s strategy. He still believes our best weapon is to use economic pressure as our primary leverage against China. But he’s purchasing this insurance policy via TSG in case it fails.” Batista tapped the finding. “Your teams need to expedite the defense in depth strategy that makes Taiwan too costly to invade.”
“Yeah, I can see that. We’ve been doing a lot of that with the ROC Marines and a couple of Army units. We are doing the best we can with the people we have, but right now I’m running everything with just two hundred and thirty-six people. I’ve got a hundred and ninety of them deployed in-country between Penghu and Tamsui as mobile training teams. If you are wanting us to go operational, actually assist the ROC in repelling an attack, two hundred and thirty-six people isn’t going to cut it.”
“Agreed, and we are addressing that.” Batista extracted a USB drive. “The authorization includes recruitment of four hundred additional contractors. Names have been pre-vetted, and the ones still on active duty can be transferred to support TSG via JSOC and the Agency. Everything you need, their backgrounds and documentation are on here.” He passed the drive across the table and Harrington pocketed it.
“And should things go kinetic, are there limits on our involvement or do we have a free hand to operate as we see fit?”
Batista leaned forward, looking Harrington in the eyes. “Marcus, if things go kinetic with the PRC, we’re in trouble. Not just us, but everyone else on our side of the ledger. Publicly, the Taiwan Study Group is a registered private military contractor that’s been hired to provide training and assistance to the armed forces of the Republic of China as they modernize their military. Privately, there are only five people in their government who know TSG has been contracted to fight on behalf of, and alongside, ROC government forces. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but should it, TSG is legally protected.”