The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was likely trying to familiarize itself with flight paths in the Western Pacific when its uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) circled Taiwan recently, military experts said.
The missions likely had a secondary objective of conducting psychological warfare against Taiwanese, they added.
On April 28, a Chinese TB-001 “Twin-Tailed Scorpion” flew in a counter-clockwise direction starting from the south of Taiwan proper and traveled inside the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) before heading back to China in airspace north of Taiwan.
Photo: EPA-EFE
On May 3, a BZK-005 followed a similar path, but in a clockwise direction, according to flight paths released by the Ministry of National Defense.
On May 11, a CH-4 drone flew from north to south off Taiwan’s east coast. It did not travel up the west coast.
National Policy Foundation associate research fellow Chieh Chung (揭仲) said that because the drones were flying off Taiwan’s shores, they were probably not aimed at spying on military facilities as some local media have speculated.
Rather, the flights were likely aimed at familiarizing the PLA with airspace east of Taiwan, because monitoring the nation’s east coast and nearby waters would be critical to the PLA before or during a war, he said.
If the Taiwanese military finds out that an attack is imminent, it would likely move fighter jets from air bases in western Taiwan to Jiashan Air Base in Hualien County, and send naval vessels to waters off the east coast to prevent their destruction by ballistic missiles, he added.
PLA aircraft carriers and bomber squadrons would need drones to locate those jets and vessels, as well as other military targets, Chieh said.
It is no surprise that the drones flew over maritime zones critical to Taiwan’s deployment of its naval vessels to protect them from a Chinese attack, he said, citing retired navy officers.
The flights, as well as the presence of China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Shandong, in waters just 120 nautical miles (222km) southeast of Taiwan on April 24, likely aim to send a message to Taiwan and other countries that the nation’s force preservation zones are no longer safe, he said.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the incursions were intended to intimidate Taiwanese and were part of the PLA’s psychological warfare campaign against Taiwan.
One sign of that is that the TB-001 and BZK-005 that flew around Taiwan have low chances of surviving a conflict as neither have stealth capability, and they fly at low speeds of between 180kph to 300kph, making them easy targets, Su said.
The flights also had a more practical purpose — to lower the cost of the PLA’s routine incursions into Taiwan’s ADIZ, he said.
The Russian-made Saturn AL-31 engines widely used in China’s “J” family of fighter jets and Sukhoi fighters, and Chinese-built Shengyang WS-10 engines used in many “J” fighters, have a lifespan of only about 1,500 hours, so deploying drones in place of fighter jets can ease the PLA’s maintenance burden, he added.
To counter China’s drone incursions, Chieh recommended equipping domestically produced drones with signal jamming devices to prevent Chinese drones from transmitting military intelligence to PLA command centers.
Some countries have knocked down intruding drones with their own UAVs, he said, but that would only be an option if the drones entered Taiwan’s territorial airspace or in the event of a war.
Su agreed that Taiwanese UAVs should shadow PLA drones and complement the nation’s radar systems.
Doing so would boost the reconnaissance capabilities of Taiwan’s military and lower the cost of patrolling the airspace around Taiwan, he said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS