3 days ago
Taiwan, Late To The Drone Boat Game, To Hold Major Capability Test
Faced with the growing threat of an invasion by the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwanese military and industrial leaders will hold a two-day demonstration of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs). Scheduled for June 17 and June 18, the demonstration is designed to help speed up the island nation's maritime drone production, a spokesman for the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said.
The move comes amid a surprising dearth of Taiwanese USVs, also known as drone boats, despite warnings from U.S. and Taiwanese officials that China could feel confident in its ability to launch a successful armed intervention against Taiwan by 2027, if not earlier. Such a conflict, as we previously reported, 'would likely become a huge drone war, with China also having made its own substantial investments in loitering munitions and swarming technologies in recent years. Chinese drones are proliferating in the air, on the ground, and at sea, and everything points to the mass use of uncrewed systems being a deciding factor in a conflict between Taiwan and China, something that has been enforced by the lessons of influential war games.'
The drone boat demonstration will be hosted by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), Taiwan's top military research organization. It will take part in two phases, according to NCIST.
'Participating companies will first showcase their technologies through static displays featuring models, video presentations, and equipment exhibits at Lungteh Shipbuilding's Plant No. 6 facility,' the Taiwanese TVBS news outlet reported. 'The program will then transition to live operational demonstrations at the Jiugongli Viewing Platform, where manufacturers will establish shoreline control stations to direct unmanned vessels through real-world missions including surveillance operations and long-distance navigation tests.'
The goal is to inform future military procurement specifications to expand Taiwan's drone boat fleet, the outlet noted.
'The initiative represents a significant milestone in Taiwan's broader strategy to modernize its naval defense capabilities amid regional security challenges,' TVBS posited.
Spurred in part by the success of Ukraine's drone boat development, Taiwan is starting to build its own USVs. In March, we reported that Taiwan unveiled a domestically produced drone boat called the Endeavor Manta. Somewhat surprisingly, this was said to be the first of its kind to have been developed.
Endeavor Manta's existence was disclosed by Taiwan's China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC Corp.), which produces ships and submarines for military and civilian use, during a launch event held in the port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The event included a demonstration of the USV's at-sea capabilities. You can read more about that USV and its specifications in our original story here.
NCSIST is also developing its own attack drone boat called the Kuai Chi. Details about its specifications are sparse.
'Although appearing similar to USVs being produced by private manufacturers, the Kuai Chi attack drone boat's internal guidance and control systems as well as other core technologies, are developed and produced entirely in-house by the NCSIST, ' Taiwan's CNA news agency reported.
The Kuai Chi will not take part in the NCSIST demonstration. That's 'due to the sensitive nature of the project,' Sun Chun-ching, an official with the Systems Development Center at the NCSIST, told reporters during a Ministry of National Defense (MND) briefing on Wednesday.
The Kuai Chi will likely undergo separate combat evaluations next month, according to CNA. Following that, the USV will be 'demonstrated to the military during a precision live-fire missile drill at Jiupeng Base in Pingtung County in August,' CNA suggested. The planned demonstration 'will simulate a battlefield scenario where the NCSIST drone boat engages various surface targets.'
If those trials are successful, the Kuai Chi could be introduced to the public during the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, Sun added.
The NCSIST demonstration will feature several drone boats being developed by private industry, Sun explained.
12 firms will enter the June USV demonstration in Yilan, Taiwan, with 4 live demonstrations (Thunder Tiger, Carbon-Based Technologies, Corum, and Lung Teh) and 8 additional static displays (JetSea AI, GEOSAT, Robuff, Ocean Aero, MARTAC, DSRG, Auterion, and HII).(Up Media)
— Taiwan Defense News Tracker
(@TaiwansDefense) May 28, 2025
All this comes as Taiwan is planning to build out its first-ever army drone units later this year, The Wall Street Journal reported. It is part of a broader push to modernize its forces amid escalating threats from China. The move builds on a similar initiative by the country's Marine Corps, which has already converted several tank and artillery battalions into drone units, Defense Minister Wellington Koo told the Journal.
The step reflects Taiwan's growing focus on asymmetric warfare, leveraging smaller, more innovative, and more agile systems to counter the overwhelming scale of Beijing's military in the event of an invasion.
'It would be best if China wakes up every day feeling like 'today's just not the day to invade,'' Koo stated.
Beyond concerns about a full-on invasion of Taiwan in the next two years, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) recently suggested that the PRC could also try to squeeze Taiwan by attacking two small islands close to the mainland.
'China possesses a variety of military options to coerce Taiwan, including increasing the frequency and scope of China's military presence operations, air and maritime blockades, seizure of Taiwan's smaller outlying islands, joint firepower strikes, and a full-scale amphibious invasion of Taiwan,' the DIA said in its 2025 Worldwide Threat Assessment released earlier this month.
Ukraine has proven the value of asymmetrical weapons like drone boats, having largely pinned down Russia's Black Sea Fleet and taken out fixed and rotary aviation with its fleet of USVs. You can see a documentary about Ukraine's sea drone effort below.
While Ukraine has a very well-developed drone boat fleet, Taiwan has yet to field any operationally. It remains to be seen whether Taipei's growing urgency about its own drone boat development will provide a viable threat to China within the projected timelines of a potential PRC attack.
While these small explosive-laden drone boats have their tactical disadvantages, they are uniquely well suited to making an invasion of Taiwan much harder for the Beijing's forces. Defending against them is possible in many circumstances, but doing so takes resources and attention, and can limit a ship's maneuvering. They also pose a threat to shore targets, like ships at dock and harbor facilities. When working in numbers, the proposition of stopping them becomes much harder. Taiwan could flood the channel with these weapons as one measure to at least slow a cross-channel invasion operation and increase its 'cost,' which serves as a different.
While line-of-sight and satellite datalinks to control these boats can be disrupted via electronic warfare, which China's is increasingly adept at, and can help in an enemy's detection of their presence, the infusion of basic artificial intelligence will make those communications unnecessary in the near future. That is if the user is willing to accept the moral implications of allowing autonomous weapons to choose their own targets. This would make defending against these types of vessel much more challenging, leaving hard kill as the only option once they are deployed.
Taken as a whole, it is somewhat concerning that Taiwan hasn't done everything possible to procure lethal drone boats, especially considering their relevance in a cross-strait conflict and their area-denial performance in the Black Sea. It also fits directly with the U.S. vision of turning the strait into a kamikaze drone 'hellscape,' not just to inflict damage on China's Navy in a war there, but to deter one from starting. So, this seems to be a case of better late than never, and this exercise should help spur further growth in this sector. But even then, Taiwan needs to get very serious about procuring these capabilities quickly, potentially including from external sources.
Contact the author: howard@
