At a drone testing field in southwestern Taiwan, university students watched anxiously as uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) they designed took off, landed and, occasionally, crashed in a simulated battlefield scenario.
They are participating in a competition that is helping the nation’s efforts to boost domestic drone production.
With Beijing sustaining military pressure on Taiwan, Taipei is ramping up investment in UAVs, as it seeks to bolster a more agile defense against a potential Chinese attack.
Photo: Walid Berrazeg, AFP
Ukraine and Russia have used UAVs extensively throughout their conflict, for surveillance and striking targets deep behind front lines.
The UAVs flying in the National Defense Application UAV Challenge could potentially be adopted by drone companies and procured by the government.
“We can see drone applications in many current conflicts happening around the world,” said competition organizer Jan Shau-shiun (詹劭勳), a professor in the space systems engineering department at National Cheng Kung University.
“Taiwan is in a position where we might also face such an issue, so based on this theme, we aim to strengthen our drone capabilities,” he said.
Now in its second year, the competition was held over two days last month at the Asia UAV AI Innovation Application R&D Center in Chiayi County.
Twenty teams from across the nation gathered to put their drones to the test. The field would be whittled down to a shortlist this month for another challenge before the winner is declared next year.
Multirotor and fixed-wing drones were required to fly autonomously to a height of at least 60m, take images of a remote target and return to base within 10 minutes. To make the scenario more realistic — and difficult — organizers this year used a jammer to disrupt satellite signals to the UAVs, making it harder for them to stay airborne.
“From observing the war in Ukraine and other conflicts, we can see that there’s often interference on the GNSS [Global Navigation Satellite System] before any fighting,” Jan said.
After spending countless hours designing and building their drones, with help from local drone or electronic component companies, teams watched nervously as their UAVs took flight. Some drones failed to reach the required height or crashed due to the jamming.
Cheng Yong-jen, 24, breathed a sigh of relief after the drone he helped design ascended, soared into the distance and safely returned.
“It crashed, we repaired, it crashed again and we repaired again,” said Cheng, a graduate student from National Formosa University. “When the drone finally descended, I was in tears.”
Lin Chun-liang (林俊良), lead judge and professor of electrical engineering at National Chung Hsing University, said the competition helped students develop “hands-on skills” not taught in schools.
The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy and develop drones, and also nurture local talent to work in the sector, as it races to upgrade its military capabilities.
President William Lai (賴清德) has pledged to make Taiwan “the Asian hub of unmanned aerial vehicle supply chains.”
However, keeping workers in the industry is a challenge in a country where the huge semiconductor sector can offer higher salaries to top graduates.
Cheng said he planned to join a drone company after finishing his master’s thesis on defense UAVs, adding that “this is the path we must take.”
“We cannot stop moving forward just because we are behind others,” Cheng said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS