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Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Taking lessons from Ukraine, Taiwan eyes sea drones to counter China
A SeaShark 800 sea drone, developed by Thunder Tiger, takes part in a test ride in the sea off Wushi, Taiwan, on June 6. PHOTO: REUTERS WUSHI, Taiwan - Just off the small Taiwan fishing port of Wushi on its Pacific coast, a Taiwanese company is testing what could eventually be a powerful but unglamorous new weapon in the island's military arsenal - sea drones. Used to great effect by Ukraine in the Black Sea against Russia, Taiwan is learning lessons on how it could use sea drones as an effective and low-cost way to fend off any possible Chinese invasion. These drones are uncrewed, remotely controlled small vessels that are packed with explosives and can be guided toward ships or potentially even attack targets in the air. Pushed by the United States, Taiwan has been working to transform its armed forces to be able to wage 'asymmetric warfare', using mobile, smaller and often cheaper weapons which still pack a targeted punch, like sea drones. 'Uncrewed boats or vehicles have played a very significant role in the Ukraine war,' Mr Chen Kuan-ting, a lawmaker for Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) who sits on Parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee, told Reuters. "Uncrewed vehicles, whether they are boats or underwater vehicles, can effectively deter China because Taiwan is not the attacking side, we are the defending side," he said. Taiwan's defence ministry's research and development arm, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, has termed the sea drone plan the "Swift and Sudden" project, which so far has a modest budget of around NT$800 million (S$34.7 million). Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on June 11 sea drones would be included in an additional spending package to be unveiled later in 2025. Details of that special budget have yet to be announced. Mr William Chen, chairman of the Thunder Tiger company, told Reuters last week on a boat off Wushi while viewing a test of their SeaShark 800 sea drone, which can carry 1,200kg of explosives and travel up to 500km, that these new weapons present an element of surprise for China. 'We can create uncertainty. We can fill the Taiwan Strait with danger and risks. No one knows where these dangers could surface,' he added. These drones are uncrewed, remotely controlled small vessels that are packed with explosives and can be guided toward ships or potentially even attack targets in the air. PHOTO: REUTERS Sea drone show Next week, Thunder Tiger will be among 12 Taiwanese and foreign companies joining an exhibition just down the coast from Wushi arranged by the defence ministry to showcase unmanned surface vehicles that may end up being added to Taiwan's arsenal. Other companies taking part, according to the ministry, include Taiwan navy contractor Lungteh Shipbuilding and US military shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries. 'Drones is a top priority for both the United States and Taiwan. Obviously the conflict in Ukraine is focusing minds on what the next generation of warfare will look like,' said Mr Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, who is leading a US defence industry delegation to Taiwan this week, including drone makers. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has ramped up its military pressure over the past five years, including staging half a dozen rounds of war games. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan has been studying how Ukraine has deployed drones to successfully offset Russia's advantage on the battlefield and has enlisted commercial drone companies, including Thunder Tiger, to help. Ukraine has deployed sea drones not only to attack ships in Russia's Black Sea fleet, but also to shoot down aircraft. Taiwan's navy is dwarfed by that of China with its aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines, though the country lacks recent combat experience. China's last successful large-scale amphibious assault was in 1950 when it seized Hainan island at the tail end of the Chinese civil war, with troops ferried across on junks. Mr Peter Chen, a drone expert and executive director of Taiwan security think tank TTRDA, said Taiwan can undoubtedly make world-class sea drones. 'But when it comes to the application, how to turn them into top-notch weapons, it is not the responsibility of private companies. The views of government and the military on how to properly integrate the weapons into the battle strategy, that needs more thinking,' he said. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Euronews
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Why drone lessons from Ukraine are key to defending Taiwan from China
Drones will be as key to Taiwan's national security as they have been for Ukraine, a Taiwanese legislator told Euronews Next. The embattled country's war efforts have boosted morale on the Asian island as it ramps up its own defences against the potential threat of a future Chinese invasion. "When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan [in 2020], it undermined the morals of Taiwan tremendously at the time," said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chen Kuan-ting, adding that some people at the time were even trying to transfer their money abroad. "But then after Russia initially launched the war against Ukraine… this is the first time in Taiwan that we have a common ground, we have consensus that we probably will prevail because of what Ukraine did". Taiwan, which is roughly 180 km from China, functions as an independent democracy with its own constitution and elected government. But China maintains that the island is a renegade province destined for reunification with the mainland, through military means if necessary. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that "the threat China poses [to Taiwan] is real and it could be imminent". Beijing is "credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific". China's foreign minister warned the US against using Taiwan as a bargaining chip to contain China and is 'playing with fire". In April, China deployed its armed, naval, and air forces for drills around Taiwan. China said the manoeuvres were to practice a blockade of the island. Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te has called for peace with China while also saying in April that the island's defence budget would rise by 3 per cent of its gross economic output and would reform its national defence forces. US President Donald Trump has previously said Taiwan should increase its defence spending as high as 10 per cent of GDP. But spending wisely, like Ukraine has done with cheaper drones to counter the first line of attack, is a lesson that Taiwan can learn from, Kuan-ting argues. The lawmaker helped establish and became president of a so-called Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association in April, which aims to "send a signal to the world, including China, that superpowers may lose modern warfare" due to new technologies. The second reason for the group is to learn from Ukraine and be able to answer questions such as managing the logistics of delivering weapons or how decisions are made in warfare. "They have the experience we don't have," he said. Asked if Taiwan is using Ukrainian drones, Kuan-ting said he had no knowledge of this. According to the legislator, based on conversations he has had with Ukrainian think-tanks, China is doing the same thing in Europe and is learning "the techniques of the Russian soldiers" and is also "there to observe how Westerners react to their aggressions". Taiwan has "a moral obligation to help Ukraine because it's a strategic deterrence to superpowers to launch war against a peace-loving country such as Taiwan," he said. 'It proves that even if you have those conventional weapons, even if you have a bigger economy, bigger troops, you might lose,' he added. But China too has been working on asymmetric warfare for the last decade and is producing 'thousands if not millions of drones every year,' Kuan-ting said, such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) and all kinds of weapons systems. 'They're good at those [drones] because they believe conventional military equipment is not sufficient to counter the United States' super military power. So they were focusing on asymmetric warfare long before we did, because they were worried about America's intervention in the region,' he added. However, the difference between the war in Ukraine and Taiwan and China's tensions is that Taiwan is separated by sea, so China would have to conduct an 'amphibious attack'. 'If they do so, I believe we will acquire the abilities and the quantity of the drones - UAV, UUV, and all kinds of asymmetric warfare equipment - to counter these kinds of aggressions'. One of Taiwan's challenges is building enough drones to counter China, Kuan-ting said. 'We are trying to reverse the situation, that they [China] have the quantity we don't. That's why in the past two, three years, the Ministry of Defence, and also most of the leadership of Taiwan, decided to try to include more public companies'. 'Instead of conventional equipment like big tanks, big aeroplanes, they probably couldn't adapt to modern warfare. We decided to buy smart and use a smart weapon system,' he said. Taiwan has set itself the goal of manufacturing 15,000 domestically made drones a month by 2028. It is a tall order, but Taiwan is a strong manufacturing country known for its quality. However, Taiwan-made drones cost on average 25 per cent more to make than Chinese drones. Scaling Taiwan's defence tech companies is therefore paramount, and working with Europe and the US to expand the markets will be key, the legislator said. At Taiwan's biggest tech fair COMPUTEX in May, one Taiwanese defence company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to vastly improve thermal cameras that see in the dark and clarify the noise in its audio equipment. The company, Thunder Fortis, says its technology can detect enemies from 300 m away in the dark. 'Our advantage is also our challenge. So we want to produce internally, but our cost will be very high if we don't rely on exports from other countries,' sales manager Nancy Lin told Euronews Next. 'Our challenge will be to try to sell to the market, but still keep a low cost. But we are very confident in manufacturing good quality products that not only serve the military market,' she added. The company is so far partnering with tech giants such as Nvidia and Arm. 'Everyone is aware that Taiwan is in a strategic position in the Taiwan Strait and we have our allies from Japan, South Korea, and also from other countries,' she said. 'We don't want to make other countries an enemy, it's a bit sensitive but we want to make ourselves strong enough so no one will try to violate our boundaries of our countries. 'Especially many of our components are made in Taiwan, assembled in Taiwan manufactured in Taiwan so we can rely on our self-produced products and we don't need to rely on imports from other countries,' she said. But to deter China, it is not just about building the best defence tech, it is also necessary to use cheap methods to eliminate military targets such as drones. 'It's not just about drones to drones, it's about how to apply the best systems, the best equipment to make sure they cannot close the Taiwan Strait,' Kuan-ting said. 'I believe if there is any country that can stop China, Taiwan might be one of them, but it has to be collective actions with our partners. So we can't do this alone,' the legislator added. Trump's America First trade policy has sent shockwaves around the world and raised questions over international relations. Despite this, Kuan-ting believes that Taiwan's ties to the US are still just as strong as before Trump's reelection. 'I believe the Congress and the Senate of the United States are sending very firm and clear signals to Taiwan and China that the United States is staying with us and they are providing us more military equipment,' he said. There has been speculation of Europe's rapprochement with China due to Trump's tariffs. However, the legislator believes that the bloc's connection with Taiwan is still close. 'Most of our friends in Europe are aware of the situation and are also aware of how the Chinese government is trying to dump their EVs (electric vehicles) onto Europe, so we have pretty much the same common ground. They're facing economical [threats], we are facing both economic and militarised threats,' he said. Marcin Jerzewski, head of the Taiwan Office of the European Values Center for Security Policy, said that 'it's too early to say that Europe is distancing itself from Taiwan' and that he has 'high hopes' related to the upcoming EU-China summit that will happen in Beijing. However, he said that this does not mean that Europe will move away from Taiwan. 'I believe that a lot of signs of goodwill and openness that are coming out of the current European Commission towards China are also a signal to the United States that the EU is willing to continue down the path of strategic autonomy'. He said that Europeans still has a tendency to look at Taiwan as only a difficult subset of overall relations with China, rather than trying to look at Taiwan as a partner in its own right. But he said there is a small shift in Europe looking at Taiwan as a partner on its own. 'It doesn't mean that we're recognising Taiwan as an independent country or abandoning one-China policy, but it's about identifying spaces for engagement that are not just sub-engagements under this broader umbrella of dealings with China,' he said. Jerzewski also said that Chinese information operations are playing a big role in stoking division in Taiwan. He said that this has two objectives. The first is sowing the seeds of anti-Americanism. "Definitely in the current climate, with unpredictability reigned in by Trump 2.0, China has been gifted many narratives on a silver platter because there is no longer a need for them to produce this information. They can just amplify the actual headlines that are coming out of DC," he said. The second objective has always been to undermine democratic processes, trust, and the public trust in democratic processes and institutions, he added. However, Taiwan is also using technology to boost its own foreign policy standing. During the president's speech this week, he also highlighted a need to turn Taiwan into an AI island and use its advantage of semiconductors to be ahead of the curve and embed Taiwan very firmly in those AI supply chains, so that giving up on Taiwan is more difficult for countries around the world. Taiwan also, in its National Security Act, included specific provisions for protecting its talent and technology. "I think that this legal change is a very conspicuous manifestation of this realisation about the simultaneous pursuit of both technological advancement and beefing up its security strategies," Jerzewski said. Securing Taiwan and Ukraine is key to global security, the legislator said, urging Europe to continue its support for Taiwan and Ukraine. 'It serves both national interests and values as well. If you want to stay, if you want to live the way you want, freely, then we must stop them. 'Because they are trying to undermine everything we are standing for, the way we live. We should not let that happen, because if it happened in Ukraine, it could happen to Poland. 'If it happened to Taiwan, it could happen to other neighbours. So we have to stop the domino here,' he said. Social media platform Reddit is suing the artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic for allegedly "scraping" millions of user comments to train its chatbot Claude. In a lawsuit filed in the California Superior Court, Reddit claims Anthropic used automated bots to access Reddit's content despite being asked not to do so, and "intentionally trained on the personal data of Reddit users without ever requesting their consent". Anthropic said in a statement that it disagreed with Reddit's claims "and will defend ourselves vigorously". "AI companies should not be allowed to scrape information and content from people without clear limitations on how they can use that data," said Ben Lee, Reddit's chief legal officer, in a statement to the Associated Press. Reddit's suit is the latest against the AI company. Another suit from major music publishers alleges that Claude regurgitates the lyrics of copyrighted songs. Yet, this lawsuit deals with the alleged breach of Reddit's terms of use and unfair competition, unlike the other suits that claim copyright infringement. Reddit has licensing agreements with Google, OpenAI, and other companies that pay to train their AI systems on the public commentary of Reddit's more than 100 million daily users. Those agreements "enable us to enforce meaningful protections for our users, including the right to delete your content, user privacy protections, and preventing users from being spammed using this content," Lee said. Much like other AI companies, Anthropic has relied heavily on websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit, that are deep troves of written materials that can help teach an AI assistant the patterns of human language. A 2021 paper co-authored by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei cited in the lawsuit shows that company researchers identified the subreddits or forums that contained the highest quality AI training data. These included subreddits on gardening, history, relationship advice, or thoughts people have in the shower. Anthropic in 2023 argued in a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office that the "way Claude was trained qualifies as a quintessentially lawful use of materials," by making copies of information to perform a statistical analysis of a large body of data.
