Taiwan Holds First Multi-Drone Joint Combat Drill — SkimNews
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- Taiwan's military held its first joint combat exercise incorporating multiple types of attack drones over three days in the island's far south, overseen by President Lai Ching-te on Sept 18.
- Lai said the coordinated use of unmanned vehicles alongside domestically developed Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missiles and Lockheed Martin-made HIMARS rockets reflects adaptation to modern warfare and is crucial for testing weapon effectiveness.
- The presidential office did not disclose which drone types were used during the drills and released only images of the missiles fired.
- Lai's government is integrating the Coast Guard into defense planning — during Taiwan's main annual war games in August, a Coast Guard ship was fitted with anti-ship missiles — and Coast Guard chief Kuan Bi-ling accompanied the president at the drone drills alongside Defence Minister Wellington Koo.
- Taiwan is studying drone warfare from the Ukraine-Russia conflict and Middle East conflicts to inform its own contingency planning against China.
- Lai declared the exercises demonstrate Taiwan's confidence and capability to defend national sovereignty and fulfill its responsibility for regional peace and stability, rejecting Beijing's sovereignty claims.
Why it matters: Taiwan is moving from procurement announcements to live combat integration of asymmetric weapons — pairing low-cost drones with precision missiles like Hsiung Feng III and HIMARS — which lowers the cost of deterrence against a numerically superior Chinese military. The simultaneous militarization of the Coast Guard, visible through a missile-armed cutter at August's war games and Kuan Bi-ling's presence at the drone drills, blurs the line between law enforcement and wartime roles ahead of any cross-strait contingency.
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