Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday.
Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last year.
Photo: Bloomberg
The hellscape strategy refers to utilizing uncrewed aerial vehicles, boats, submersibles and loitering munitions to conduct saturation strikes or precision attacks against high-value targets to attrit or paralyze the PLA invasion fleet, the official said.
Such attacks are cost-effective, require a comparatively small number of troops and could potentially overwhelm the defensive systems of a larger adversary, they said.
As the Sea-Air Combat Power Improvement comes to a close, the Ministry of National Defense is mulling significant investments in creating a domestic capability to sustain the mass production of uncrewed vehicles, components, guidance kits and related pyrotechnics, the official said.
Observations of foreign conflicts suggest that modern warfare consumes uncrewed vehicles and loitering munitions at rates that strain the capabilities of any defense industrial base, they added.
The military tentatively plans to develop four types of combat drones consisting of a short-ranged direct attack model, a loitering munition model, a vertical takeoff and horizontal airlift-capable model, and a cost-effective type with capabilities comparable to guided missiles, they said.
The ministry would also place thousands of additional AeroVironment Switchblade 300 and Anduril Altius-600M orders from the US to complement planned indigenous systems, the official said.
Officials have yet to determine if drones would be funded via a special program or as part of the ministry’s recurring budget, they added.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) today said that if South Korea does not reply appropriately to its request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, it would take corresponding measures to alter how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. The ministry said that it changed the nationality for South Koreans on Taiwan’s Alien Resident Certificates from “Korea” to “South Korea” on March 1, in a gesture of goodwill and based on the
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
RSS