The Ministry of National Defense has signed formal agreements with the US government to buy as many as 1,000 attack drones from defense contractor AeroVironment and defense tech firm Anduril Industries, according to people in the industry familiar with the transaction.
Taiwan signed a “letter of offer and acceptance” late last month, the step before signed contracts that specify quantities, dollar values and delivery dates.
Those contracts could be signed soon, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the unannounced action.
Photo: Bloomberg
A US Department of State spokesperson declined to comment on any pending Taiwan sales.
Attack drones have burgeoned into a major component of modern warfare. Russian and Ukrainian forces have deployed thousands of drones to spy on each other and to carry out attacks in their ongoing war, while unmanned aerial vehicles were used in an Iranian attack on Israel in April.
The transactions demonstrate “that both Taiwan and the US are learning important lessons from the combat in Ukraine, and turning that knowledge into future procurement,” said Rear Admiral (Ret) Mark Montgomery, a senior director with the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, who has traveled to Taiwan to assess its defense needs.
In June, the US Department of State notified Congress that it had approved the sale of as many as 291 Anduril Altius 600M-V systems valued at US$300 million and as many as 720 AeroVironment Switchblade 300 “B” model drones valued at as much as US$60 million.
According to Anduril, its Altius 600M-V is a multi-mission aerial vehicle that allows a single operator to control multiple drones. It has a range of about 160km and a flight time of almost two hours.
AeroVironment’s 1.8kg model can loiter over a target for as long as 20 minutes and is equipped with a specialized anti-armor warhead. It has a range of about 30km.
Representatives at Taiwan’s office in Washington declined to comment, as did the US-Taiwan Business Council.
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
Taiwan must first strengthen its own national defense to deter a potential invasion by China as cross-strait tensions continue to rise, multiple European lawmakers said on Friday. In a media interview in Taipei marking the conclusion of an eight-member European parliamentary delegation’s six-day visit to Taiwan, the lawmakers urged Taipei to remain vigilant and increase defense spending. “All those who claim they want to protect you actually want to conquer you,” Ukrainian lawmaker Serhii Soboliev said when asked what lessons Taiwan could draw from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Soboliev described the Kremlin as a “new fascist Nazi regime” that justified
RSS