Privately owned drones trespassing on restricted airspace, including airports and military bases, will be intercepted or shot down, and their operators will be charged, the Ministry of National Defense said on Tuesday.
Any drone that encroaches on the restricted airspace of a civilian airport or military airbase, posing a danger to flight safety or military secrets are to be intercepted by electronic interference or defensive weapons, said Major General Chung Shu-ming (鍾樹明), director of the ministry’s joint operations.
Starting from Jan. 10, violators will be charged under the Criminal Code (中華民國刑法), the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法), and other applicable laws and regulations, Chung said.
The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology has developed an integrated anti-drone air defense system that includes drones armed with nets, which can intercept remote-controlled aerial vehicles, Chung said.
The military is continuing its efforts to inform the public about the threats to flight safety and national security posed by unauthorized drone activity, Chung said.
When asked for comment, the institute’s Material and Electro-Optics Division director, Cheng Yi-cheng (程一誠), said that while no orders for the anti-drone air defense system has been placed yet, the system has been successfully demonstrated to the nation’s military and police units, with components that can be customized based on user specifications.
The unit cost of a system varies according to buyer’s requirements, Cheng said, adding that the most advanced version, which can intercept and dispose of bomb-carrying drones, could cost anywhere from several hundred thousands to tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars.
The system’s detection range can also be customized, with a maximum range of 5km to 7km, he said.
Facilities such as civilian airports that do not require a large defense perimeter are not likely to need more than 2km of detection range, and a system for those facilities could be purchased at the lower end of the price range, he said.
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