Taiwan must develop ways to counter the rising threat posed by Chinese drones, the Institute for National Defense and Security Research wrote in a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has increasingly used drones in the past few years to carry out “gray zone” operations in the airspace around Taiwan, and over the Taiwan Strait, the East China Sea and South China Sea, the report said.
Taiwan must develop measures to counter the drones, review whether existing weapons and equipment can be used to that end, and develop technologies, equipment and tactics that specifically deal with uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Photo: Reuters
The military should also enhance and expand its use of drones, and develop advanced drone technology to bolster asymmetric combat capabilities, it wrote.
The Chinese UAVs that have been spotted in the region over the past few years include the CH-4 mixed attack and reconnaissance drone; the Harbin BZK-005 high-altitude, long-range drone; the Tengden TB-001 medium-altitude, long-endurance drone; the KVD-001 tactical drone; the BZK-007 reconnaissance drone; and the Wing Loong-10 high-altitude, long-endurance drone.
The latter three first appeared in the past year, the report said.
The Wing Loong-10 first appeared over the Taiwan Strait in April last year, flying northward, it said.
The vehicle, which uses a turbojet engine for propulsion, can be fitted with a variety of weapons systems to pinpoint targets before firing from high altitude, it said.
The BZK-007 first appeared in September last year over waters to the southeast of Taiwan, the report said.
The vehicle is equipped with a satellite antenna to perform long-term reconnaissance and surveillance tasks.
“This drone has the advantage that it is cheap to build, and it can stay in the air for up to 16 hours. It has become part of the regular arsenal of China’s air force,” the report said.
The report said that China was using the incursions into Taiwanese airspace to test its drones’ long-distance flight capabilities, satellite positioning, guidance, control and automatic route planning.
The incursions are also a way for China to test Taiwan’s and Japan’s air-defense response capabilities, it said.
However, China’s military drones are mainly tasked with patrols, surveillance, reconnaissance, target calibration, battlefield assessment, communications support, air-defense suppression and logistical support, it said.
“It is clear that the CCP will use a large number of drones in military and combat missions to support its various stages of combat operations,” the report said.
“This will mean everything from intelligence gathering and communications relay to the implementation of precision strikes and serving as decoys to consume enemy air defenses,” it said.
China might also convert older fighter jets, such as the J-6 and J-7 planes, into UAVs to serve as decoys, it said.
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen