The US has sold kamikaze drones to Taiwan for more than NT$5.2 billion (US$161.66 million), Taiwan’s government e-procurement system showed today.
The two separate packages consist of 685 Switchblade 300 loitering munitions and related equipment at a cost of NT$1.74 billion, and 291 ALTIUS 600M-V drone systems and related equipment at a cost of NT$3.53 billion, which are to be delivered by 2029 and 2027 respectively, the system showed.
A loitering munition is a drone designed to loiter around a target area and attack enemy targets when spotted. The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched drone designed to attack ground troops.
Photo: National Police of Ukraine press service via Reuters
The ALTIUS 600M-V is the warhead variant of the Anduril series of loitering munitions. It can be deployed from various platforms and in a networked swarm.
Taiwan’s military said drones are “standard equipment” for modernized armed forces and a kind of “innovative and asymmetrical” means of defense, adding that the procurement of the drones and missiles is necessary.
The US government in June agreed to sell more than 1,000 Switchblade 300 and Altius 600M-V loitering munition drones to Taiwan at an estimated cost of US$360.2 million.
The Ministry of National Defense’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year released earlier this year showed that the government plans to spend more than NT$10 billion to procure military drones.
The NT$5.2 billion cost for the two packages does not reach half of the ministry’s proposed budget.
The Pentagon has formed a “tiger team” to discuss foreign military sales and ensure that Taiwan has sufficient military capabilities, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said last year.
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