The army on Friday inaugurated its Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Training Center, with Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) in attendance watching a brief exercise demonstrating its capabilities in using drones for reconnaissance and combat.
The center is part of the army’s Education, Training and Doctrine Development Command, and is tasked with teaching basic drone operations and maintenance, as well as fostering teaching talent, drone tactics, and research and development, Commander of Army Headquarters General Lu Kun-hsiu (呂坤修) said.
The center’s inauguration symbolized the army’s advances in developing asymmetrical combat capabilities, he said.
Photo courtesy of Military News Agency
Drones would be a critical force and component in future warfare, and the army’s focus on drones also demonstrates that the army is aware of developing trends for future warfare and is making efforts to embrace those trends, Lu said.
Hsiao, making the visit at the Neijiao Base on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德), thanked the center’s officers and soldiers for their dedication and hard work over the past year, and their families for their support.
Lai has instructed that the military should keep abreast of new technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence (AI), and mull the utilization of such technologies to improve national security, Hsiao said.
Hsiao said the Lai administration emphasized the development of various types of drone platforms for military use, such as submersible drones and stealth-capable maritime drones, and other military-specification drones allowed for commercial use.
In line with this focus, the government has developed an Aerospace and Drone Industry Park in Chiayi County’s Minsyong Township (民雄), using the west wing of the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology complex in the area, she added.
The government has also encouraged private companies to focus on drone development and become part of the global supply chain for drone components or manufacturing, she said.
In an interview with Lithuanian National Radio and Television on Dec. 16 last year, Hsiao said that Taiwan hoped to collaborate with like-minded partners worldwide to develop AI, which would play a significant role in future industries.
‘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
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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
RSS