TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's Minister of National Defense, Chiu Kuo-cheng, is set to report on the current status and development of the military's drone usage to the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday (March 27).
A written report was delivered to the legislators' offices a day earlier, outlining that future drone usage will be differentiated by combat missions, range, control distance, and weight of the aircraft. The drones will be divided into joint operations, tactical, and combat levels.
The Defense Ministry plans to establish a drone training center to respond to future combat patterns and enemy threats.
Joint operation level drones, with a control distance of over 150 kilometers, will be deployed in the Air Force and Navy units, mainly carrying out reconnaissance and surveillance missions around Taiwan's territorial waters and airspace.
Tactical-level drones will be deployed in all military units with a control distance of 20 to 150 kilometers. During joint interception and homeland defense stages, they will carry out battlefield reconnaissance, fire coordination, and assessment tasks.
Combat-level drones, with a control distance of less than 20 kilometers, will be deployed in basic military units. They will provide the ability to monitor obstacles across land terrain, reducing personnel losses and improving the effectiveness of established weapons attacks.
President-elect Lai Ching-te also recently visited Chiayi's Asia UAV AI Innovation Application R&D Center to inspect domestic drones, highlighting the government's emphasis on drone development.