Taiwan secures deals with US to buy up to 1,000 attack drones

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence has formalized agreements with the US government to acquire as many as 1,000 attack drones from defense contractors AeroVironment and Anduril Industries.

This move aims to bolster the island democracy's defenses against a potential Chinese assault, according to industry sources familiar with the transaction, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.

Taiwan signed a “letter of offer and acceptance” in late September, the step before signed contracts that specify quantities, dollar values and delivery dates.

Those contracts could be signed soon, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the unannounced action.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on any pending Taiwan sales.

Attack drones have burgeoned into a major component of modern warfare. Russian and Ukrainian forces have deployed thousands of drones to spy on each other and for attacks in their continuing warfare, while unmanned aerial vehicles were used in an Iranian attack on Israel in April.

The transactions demonstrate “that both Taiwan and the US are learning important lessons from the combat in Ukraine, and turning that knowledge into future procurement”, said Rear Admiral (Ret) Mark Montgomery, a senior director with the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, who has travelled to Taiwan to assess its defence needs.

In June, the State Department notified Congress that it had approved the sale of as many as 291 Anduril Altius 600M-V systems valued at US$300 million (S$397 million) and as many as 720 AeroVironment Switchblade 300 “B” model drones valued at as much as US$60 million.

According to Anduril, its Altius 600M-V is a multi-mission aerial vehicle that allows a single operator to control multiple drones. It has a range of about 160km and a flight time of almost two hours.

AeroVironment’s 1.8kg model can loiter over a target for as long as 20 minutes and is equipped with a specialised anti-armour warhead. It has a range of about 30km.

Representatives at Taiwan’s office in Washington declined to comment, as did the US-Taiwan Business Council.

News.Az