Taiwan has offered a rare glimpse at its loitering munitions, a crucial component of its asymmetric defense strategy against a potential Chinese assault and invasion.
This month, The Warzone reported that Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense has just unveiled its Chien Hsiang loitering munitions by hitting a mock target during a test.
The Warzone cites a video released last Thursday (August 17) by the Military News Agency showing a Chien Hsiang launched from a mobile trailer and propelled into the air by a rocket. Once reaching its intended altitude, the weapon uses a small propeller engine to lock onto a target and crash-dive into it.
The report also says that the video showcases other drone achievements from Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), a top military organization for advanced research, development, testing and evaluation.
It is not the first time Taiwan has unveiled the Chien Hsiang. In November 2022, The Warzone reported that the NCSIST exhibited the drone that month, which it described at the time as an indigenous anti-radiation loitering munition designed to take out enemy radars on the coast, inland, or at sea.
The NCSIST also stated that the Chien Hsiang could be used as an anti-drone weapon, but this would be a limited and questionable case.
Furthermore, Taiwan News reported this month that there are two kinds of Chien Hsiang, one with a target imaging guidance system for precise strikes from afar and another with a satellite positioning guidance system for high-value targets.
Both reportedly carry high-explosive warheads. Moreover, the Taiwan News report says four projects are being developed to prepare for the new weapon, including a storage depot and a maintenance facility.
The same report notes that the Taiwanese military said the Chien Hsiang would become standard equipment for the Air Force’s Air Defense and Artillery brigades, with the production of 104 such munitions expected to be complete by 2025.
The Warzone report says that the Chien Hsiang, first seen publicly in 2017, is a delta-wing drone with a single gas engine that drives a pusher propeller at the back.
That report states that the new video clip reveals that pairs of pop-out antennas deploy on top and below the drone after launch, which are features seen on newer iterations of the core design.
It also mentions that the NCSIST has stated that its maximum endurance is five hours and its range allows it to strike targets up to 1,000 kilometers away, which if accurate makes it a long-range SEAD/DEAD weapon.
The Warzone also notes that the Chien Hsiang does not need an operator in the loop to carry out a strike, as it can be preset to fly to a specific location and immediately search for target emissions, enabling the drone to re-engage a threat that might have stopped emitting temporarily.
It also says that the onboard autopilot allows the Chien Hsiang to attack specific coordinates without homing in on any emissions.
Multiple Chien Hsiang variants have cameras with fixed fields of view, which can confirm the target hit if connectivity is available. Another variant reportedly has a gimbaled camera turret in the nose, a possible operator in the loop model to allow its operators to hunt for dynamic targets and perform reconnaissance missions.
The Warzone reports that the Chien Hsiang is primarily launched from a 12-cell trailer-mounted system, with the trailers being road-mobile and concealable in Taiwan’s underground facilities. Taiwan has additional static ground-based and shipboard launchers, the report notes.
As part of its “porcupine strategy,” Taiwan has adopted drones to counter China’s military advantage. This involves deploying distributed, mobile, affordable and highly survivable weapons such as man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), anti-ship missiles, anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and drones.
In a July 2023 article in C4ISRNET, Ryan Brobst and James Hesson note that loitering munitions like the Chien Hsiang are precisely what Taiwan needs to defend itself against a China invasion.
Brobst and Hesson note that drones are a low-cost alternative to aircraft and high-end missiles, making them ideal for smaller groups or countries with limited resources to deter larger adversaries.
They say that one-way attack drones, loitering munitions and quadcopters are disruptive technologies that will change how future wars are fought, enabling smaller militaries to gain capabilities at a fraction of the cost of combat aircraft.
Brobst and Hesson suggest that Taiwan could employ the Chien Hsiang to strike against Chinese targets in the event of an invasion, targeting staging facilities, airbases, ships in port and fuel depots.
They also note that these systems could provide Taiwan with disruptive effects by overwhelming defenses and increasing lethality by striking with indigenously-developed missiles.
Along those lines, The Straits Times reported in July 2023 that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen authorized the “Drone National Team” program, which intends to quickly build a self-sufficient drone supply chain by recruiting drone makers and aviation and aerospace firms on the island to work with the military.
The Taiwanese government aims to produce over 3,200 military drones by mid-2024, including mini-drones weighing less than two kilograms and larger surveillance craft with a 150-kilometer range, according to The Straits Times report. It also says private companies are enlisted in the program’s research and development (R&D) phase to accelerate production, with at least nine already participating.
The development of loitering munitions such as the Chien Hsiang may also be one area where the US can assist Taiwan in hardening its defenses indigenously, raise invasion costs for China and maintain the longstanding status quo in the Taiwan Strait short of military intervention.
However, Taiwan faces several challenges in its drone program. Asia Times reported in November 2022 that the Taiwanese military has not presented any wartime operational concept for drones and has barely tapped into the private sector for drone development due to concerns about leaking sensitive information to China.
While Taiwan’s NCSIST spearheads the island’s drone program, private drone manufacturers are only tapped for small manufacturing tasks and can’t propose military-related plans. Additionally, if Taiwan’s military drone program is partly aimed at developing its drone industry and creating jobs, the results may be sub-optimal from a military perspective.