The Coast Guard Administration has asked the Ministry of the Interior for budgetary approval of a NT$1.6 billion (US$52.8 million) plan to acquire ship-borne aerial drones with surveillance capabilities, a coast guard official said.
Pending ministry approval, the coast guard would buy 30 rotary-wing drones over five years to be used for maritime law enforcement missions, said the official, who declined to be named.
The drones could aid the coast guard by providing video information in real time, the official said.
Coast guard patrol ships are required to have a helicopter landing pad, but not a hangar. The ships can support helicopters with folding rotors, but not helicopters lacking this feature, the official said.
The coast guard has requested permission to purchase rotary-wing aerial drones that do not need a runway for take-off and have the ability to land on ships, the official added.
The drones would need to be capable of long-range missions and be able to withstand level 6 gusts on the Beaufort scale, though the ability to withstand level 9 winds would be ideal, the official said.
The coast guard would give preference to domestic contractors if their products meet performance standards, the official said.
Drones designed by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology, the Juiyuan (銳鳶) and the Hung chueh (紅雀), currently are not suitable for the coast guard, although they are used by the military, the official said.
The Juiyuan is a fixed-wing design that cannot perform fast sorties from land to ship as required by the coast guard, while the hand-held Hungchueh is difficult to recover in rough seas, the official said.
The replacement of personnel with technology is necessary for the administration to continue operations in light of its expectant downsizing, the official said.
Dedicated rotary-wing drones will be crucial to the administration’s ability to protect Taiwan’s coastlines and its maritime interests, the official added.
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