Taiwan to develop drone boat hardware

台灣將開發無人艇硬體

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The military has said hardware platforms for suicide drone boats will be produced domestically, while software technology will be imported from abroad.

The defense ministry plans to increase the budget for procuring suicide drone boats from NT$18 billion (about US$566 million) to NT$28 billion, Liberty Times reported. It emphasized that unmanned surface vessels are not limited to suicide attack roles. Depending on operational needs, they can carry different payloads to perform a variety of combat missions.

Military officials said on Thursday that this flexibility is one reason the budget for USVs has been significantly increased. Officials explained that the main components in USVs are autonomous obstacle-avoidance systems and advanced AI swarm-attack technology.

Possessing these two high-end technologies is necessary for suicide drone boats to achieve mature surprise-attack and strike capabilities, they said. Domestic manufacturers currently lack sufficient capability in these areas, requiring technical assistance from foreign companies.

At last year’s Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition, the National Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology signed procurement and memorandum-of-understanding agreements with six North American defense companies, per Liberty Times. Among them, the US company MARTAC agreed to provide USVs and autonomous obstacle-avoidance systems to help the Taiwan Navy develop maritime asymmetric warfare capabilities.

By introducing MARTAC’s AI-assisted vessel navigation system, Taiwan aims to strengthen its Navy’s capabilities in autonomous navigation, interception, and coordinated multi-vessel operations, Liberty Times said.