Taiwan’s first indigenously developed long-endurance reconnaissance drone completed a 20-hour flight, validating its defining feature as an advanced surveillance platform.
This marks a significant milestone in the island’s domestic defense industry, which has been ramping up a series of homegrown unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and missile projects.
The island has been facing unprecedented Chinese military pressure since the August 2022 visit of former US Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Beijing held first-of-their-kind live-fire drills around the island and fired missiles over its airspace, with bolder violations of its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) continuing to this day.
China has been assessed to have overwhelming military superiority, with the balance of firepower and combat capability in the Taiwan Strait firmly skewed in Beijing’s favor. However, it is believed that Taipei, too has some room for warding off and slowing down a strike – at least until reinforcements from the US-led alliance arrive.
An early warning on any naval surface movements and mobilization by a strategic reconnaissance UAV can go a long way in avoiding many surprises. Interestingly, the drone had suffered an accident earlier this year during testing, serving as a major setback.
Taiwan’s Long-Endurance Drone Milestone
According to TaiwanPlus, the domestically-built medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE)-class drone can monitor the Taiwan Strait for “nearly a full day” at a time.It has been developed by Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCIST) for “surveillance and strike missions.” This, therefore, also makes it a ‘reconnaissance-strike’ drone.