Taiwan is seeking US-made kamikaze drones in an apparent concession to pressure from Washington to focus on asymmetric capabilities to defeat or deter a Chinese attack, Foreign Policy said in a report on Wednesday.
Taipei has expressed an interest in obtaining AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions or other devices with similar capabilities, it said, citing four sources familiar with the matter commenting on condition of anonymity.
The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed for attacking ground troops, while its larger sibling, the Switchblade 600, could be used to destroy tanks and entrenched troops.
Photo: Screen grab from AeroVironment’s Facebook page
Ukraine has utilized both systems extensively in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
The US Army has stopped buying the smaller variant, but doubled down on the Switchblade 600, having placed a US$72 million order for the more powerful system.
“This is all part of the US push for asymmetry,” Ivan Kanapathy, Center of Strategic and International Studies researcher and a former US National Security Council official under former US president Donald Trump, was quoted as saying.
“We were telling them: ‘You guys need to buy a lot more munitions,’” he said.
Taipei had sent a letter of request to the US Department of Defense for drones matching the Switchblade 300, and a second letter detailing requirements for drones resembling the Switchblade 600 or Anduril’s Altius-600, sources told Foreign Policy.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US, the US Department of Defense, AeroVironment and Anduril declined to confirm or deny the reports when approached by Foreign Policy.
The Switchblade 300 has an effective range of 30km, a flight time of more than 20 minutes and carries a munition weighing 1.68kg, AeroVironment said.
Meanwhile, the Altius-600 features a flight time of more than four hours, US-based Anduril said.
Taiwan might be looking for US-made suicide drones as a backup, in case domestic programs fail to meet performance or quality requirements, Institute for National Defense and Security Research fellow Shen Ming-shih (沈明室) said on Friday.
Buying directly from the US would make sense if the military believes its need for loitering munitions to be urgent, Shen said.
Getting working systems now could give troops and researchers valuable knowledge about this type of weapon, Shen added.
Taiwanese armed forces would also have to procure drones in large enough numbers to ensure a reasonable return on the costs of integrating drone platforms into military command and control systems, Shen said.
Buying US drones could be a quick fix for Taiwanese armed forces to get much-needed capabilities, as Chuangshan Institute of Science and Technology’s loitering munitions do not appear to be ready for testing, Institute for National Defense and Security Research associate research fellow Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌) said.
Switchblade drones have the added benefit of being operable by individual soldiers, which minimizes the potential for complications in integrating a new weapon system, Shu said.
Though reliance on US-sourced drones might diminish domestic manufacturers’ interest in developing uncrewed aerial vehicles, Switchblade-type drones are different enough in attack methods from comparable Taiwanese offerings to avoid competition, Shu said.
US arms sales remain the best way for the Ministry of National Defense to meet a pressing need for weapons and foreign acquisitions could be leveraged to facilitate domestic efforts at research and development, Shu added.
Taiwanese companies are still unfamiliar with designing combat drones, so introducing the Switchblade could spur domestic manufacturers to close this knowledge gap, Shu said.
Should the US-made attack drones displace their Taiwanese competitors, the latter could still create systems for other roles such as reconnaissance and logistics, Shu added.
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