Taiwan’s military and US-based Kratos Defense have successfully tested a new jet-powered attack drone, a move aimed at rapidly boosting the nation’s ability to field “large numbers” of low-cost drones amid a rising Chinese threat.
In a recent test campaign at Kratos’ facility in Oklahoma City, engineers from both sides validated the integration of a Taiwanese mission payload on the Mighty Hornet IV attack drone, Kratos said in a statement on Thursday.
Kratos called the test a “milestone” that could pave the way for deeper cooperation between the company and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, AFP
The effort comes as Taiwan seeks to expand security ties with the US, including jointly developing and manufacturing weapons.
In a statement, the institute described the project as a “new milestone in US-Taiwan defense technology collaboration,” saying such cooperation could shorten development timelines and meet Taiwan’s needs for “rapid countermeasures and long-range pre-emptive strikes.”
The Mighty Hornet IV is being developed as a low-cost, cruise missile-like weapon, and the two sides aim to base a “large quantity” of the systems in Taiwan as both a deterrent and a wartime asset, Kratos said.
China has been sending warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around Taiwan on an almost daily basis in what Taipei calls “gray zone” tactics. It held its latest large-scale war games near the nation in late December last year.
The number of detected Chinese military aircraft — including fighters and drones — operating near Taiwan rose 23 percent last year from a year earlier, the Ministry of National Defense said this week.
Taipei has been working to secure cheaper, more numerous uncrewed systems that are key to complicating any potential Chinese attack.
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