Taiwan moves to buy 1,000 attack drones from US firms

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence has signed formal agreements with the US government allowing it to buy as many as 1,000 attack drones from defence contractor AeroVironment and defence tech firm Anduril Industries to aid in blunting a potential Chinese assault on the island democracy, according to people in industry familiar with the transaction. 

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. BLOOMBERG