The navy on Monday began soliciting proposals for four types of equipment, including attack uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), which are rumored to be used by the navy and the coast guard.
The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology last year began developing the vessels with its Project Kuai Chi (快奇), Chinese-language media reported.
The prototypes from the project passed combat evaluation in August, the reports said.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
The impetus for the project was due to the success of Ukraine’s use of the Maritime Autonomous Guard Unmanned Robotic Apparatus V5 vehicles, which weigh less than 1 tonne, to attack Russia’s Tsezar Kunikov landing ship when it was fully loaded and its Sergei Kotov patrol ship.
The two Russian war vessels have displacements of more than 4,000 tonnes and 1,700 tonnes respectively.
Sources within the Ministry of National Defense said in August that the navy, the marines and the Army Special Forces Command were interested in the project, with a potential order for 1,320 USVs.
The fiscal 2026 defense budget submitted to the Legislative Yuan in October, while not mentioning Project Kuai Chi by name, included items for USVs to be allocated under a special budget, sources said.
A NT$1.25 trillion (US$40.04 billion) special defense budget plan announced by the Presidential Office late last month also said that some of the funds would be used to obtain USVs.
The special budget would be used to obtain equipment over eight years, looking specifically to obtain anti-air defenses, ballistic missile defenses, anti-armor missiles, precision artillery, long-range precision-strike missiles, uncrewed vehicles and countermeasures, and artificial intelligence-assisted systems, as well as command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems.
In September, the Ocean Affairs Council included images of vessels developed under the Kuai Chi project and passages outlining how the Coast Guard Administration would examine increasing the use of USVs for patrols and research, a source said.
More than 1,500 vessels might be ordered, the source said.
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