The army has designated next month Drone Exercise Month as it plans to conduct drone attack, defense, reconnaissance and strike drills mirroring real combat conditions to evaluate training and boost combat capabilities across its drone units, sources said.
In addition to major drone exercises off the coast of Taichung’s Dajia District (大甲), the army would also conduct joint drills in northern and southern offshore areas involving drone attacks and artillery firing on maritime targets, as well as aerial monitoring of artillery strike effectiveness, they said.
To support the development of uncrewed systems operations across the army, navy and air force, the army on April 10 upgraded its drone training center into the Unmanned Systems Training Command.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
It held a two-day drone training and evaluation on April 29 and 30, bringing together all military drone units for live capability testing focused on first-person view and bomb-dropping drones.
The army is also to include drone attack-and-defense operations into combat exercises.
During the military’s Lunar New Year combat readiness drills, the navy had showcased its land-based surveillance and reconnaissance drone for the first time.
At the end of last year, the Marine Corps conducted live-fire maritime tests of the domestically developed Chien Feng I (“Mighty Hornet,” 勁蜂) attack drone off the coast of Zuoying District (左營) in Kaohsiung to bolster the strike capabilities the navy.
The drone was deployed from an M96 speedboat operated by the Marine Corps.
In addition to operating multiple types of surveillance and reconnaissance drones, the army has fully fielded 291 Altius 600M-V attack drones, while 685 Switchblade 300 loitering munitions are being delivered in batches.
An unnamed military official said next month would be the army’s drone exercise month, with the main drills taking place off the coast of Dajia. It would be the first time the armed forces conducts a major exercise focused on drones.
The 10th Field Army is scheduled to hold a five-day drill next week from Monday to Friday, using active-duty drones to carry out reconnaissance and simulated attacks on maritime “targets.”
The 6th Army Command and 8th Field Army would also conduct exercises next month that include drone attack-and-defense.
Live-firing notices released this week said that the 6th Army Command is scheduled to hold a joint artillery and drone exercise off the coast of Jhuangwei Township (壯圍) in Yilan next week from Monday to Friday, which would include ground artillery fire and drone firing.
Another five-day exercise involving ground weapons and drone firing off the coast of Sinfong Township (新豐) in Hsinchu is scheduled for June 22 to 26.
The firing control schedules and exercise details for the 8th Field Army in southern Taiwan would be announced soon, sources said.
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