Maritime drones to boost Taiwan's surveillance capabilities
ROC Central News Agency
11/04/2020 05:43 PM
Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) A proposed maritime drone sale approved by the U.S. Tuesday will boost the Taiwan military's surveillance capabilities and serve as evidence of increased mutual trust between Washington and Taipei, local military experts said Wednesday.
The U.S. government announced plans that day to sell Taiwan four MQ-9B Sea Guardian remotely piloted aircraft and related equipment at an estimated cost of US$600 million.
This is the third U.S. arms sale to Taiwan in two weeks and the 10th since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January 2017.
The deal would also be the first such sale since the Trump administration loosened export rules for military drones amid its trade war with China.
Included in the package are four weapons-ready MQ-9B unmanned aerial drones, two fixed ground control stations, two mobile ground control stations and 14 embedded global positioning system/inertial navigation systems (EGI) with selective availability anti-spoofing modules (SAASM).
Asked to comment, Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a local think tank, said the highlights of the latest arms package are that the maritime drone is capable of carrying weapons and satellite communication links.
The weapons system, once acquired by the nation's armed forces, would mean that the Taiwanese military will for the first time have a drone capable of both surveillance and combat, Su said.
In granting the sale of such a high-level weapons system, Washington's decision has significance both militarily and politically, according to Su.
The drone is capable of satellite communication links that are shared only among U.S. allies, Su said, adding that providing the drone to Taiwan means that mutual trust between the two countries has significantly increased in recent years, he said.
Militarily, the aircraft is capable of a vast range of maritime surveillance operations and can largely boost the Taiwan military's reconnaissance and battlefield management capabilities, he added.
A military source told CNA that the armed forces' existing platforms for surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering are stationary rather than mobile, which makes them more vulnerable to enemy attack.
MQ-9B Sea Guardians, capable of persistent long-range surveillance, will complement the stationary platforms.
The drone can also be deployed to monitor Chinese military assets entering Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and relieve pressure on Taiwanese fighter pilots who are currently tasked with the job, the source added.
Expressing similar views, Chieh Chung (揭仲), a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight, another local think tank, told CNA that the MQ-9B Sea Guardian can stay aloft for a maximum 40 hours, much longer than the deployment time of the Taiwan military's P-3C submarine-hunting aircraft (17 hours).
The drone can thus be deployed to take on long-range surveillance missions at waterways around the island and to collect intelligence on enemy vessels conducting exercises in waters near Taiwan, he said.
The MQ-9B can also embark on reconnaissance missions to monitor the activities of Chinese troops and military installations posted along China's coastal provinces should they make large-scale mobilizations, Chieh added.
(By Chen Yun-yu and Joseph Yeh)
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