Taiwan to bulk up its drone fleet to deal with Chicom threat
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said last weekend her government is carefully studying the success of Ukrainian drone warfare against invading Russian forces, and will make a substantial investment to speed up drone development so Taiwan enjoys similar advantages against a potential Chinese invasion.
“Regardless of whether it is for military or civilian use, it is highly necessary for us to speed up our development of drones as it will be an important matter for the next generation,” Tsai said last Sunday while visiting the site of a proposed research facility for artificial intelligence and drone technology.
Tsai outlined a plan for several local aerospace and robotics manufacturers to work with the state-funded National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology on militarized drones. The institute has produced two surveillance and two attack drone prototypes so far, but none of the designs has been commissioned for production.
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The RAND Corporation published a white paper last year suggesting Taiwan could benefit from a “mesh” of several thousand targeting drones with overlapping fields of view, linked together with a militarized version of 5G wireless networking. Such a system would help Taiwan’s missiles seek out high-value invading targets and strike at their most vulnerable locations.
The RAND proposal required no new technologies, and the drones would be small and inexpensive, overwhelming the Chinese invasion force with so many targets that shooting them all down would be impossible.
Another strategy considered by Taiwan involves “suicide drones,” specially designed to seek out and destroy Chinese radar systems. The suicide drone concept would work around Taiwan’s lack of expertise by designing missile release systems, frequently cited by analysts as a major obstacle to the island’s drone ambitions.
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I think Taiwan has the technical ability to design and build its own drones. Some of the most effective drones Ukraine has used against Russia were designed and built by Turkey. Ukraine has also gotten drones from Western sources too. They have been especially effective against Russian large platform weapons, from tanks to battleships.
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