Taipei, Taiwan

Taiwan is working towards developing a suicide drone which can carry out autonomous and manual attacks as the country aims to bolster its asymmetric warfare capabilities amid the increasing pressure from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as per a report published in the South China Morning Post.

The aerial weapon which is being developed will turn out to be a more powerful variant of the Loitering Unmanned Aircraft Type 1.

Loitering Unmanned Aircraft Type 1 was inspired by the US-made Switchblade 300, a drone which proved effective in neutralising ground targets and destroying Russian tanks in the war in Ukraine.

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The aerial weapon which has been tentatively named the “Loitering Missile II”, will be the Type 2 suicide drone which will be equipped with built-in warheads and will be able to linger near a target till the moment it strikes - by flying into the target.

Destructive aerial weapons can be launched from different platforms

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Type 2, which is a miniature of Type 1's much larger version, can be launched from various platforms with the aim of amplifying its destructive power, as per the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, the top weapons builder of the country.

“Type 2 is a high mobility munition that can be easily repositioned because its foldable wings allow for efficient transport,” stated Chi Li-pin, director of the Institute’s aeronautical systems research division, while speaking to South China Morning Post.

The weapon has the ability to abort or change its attack missions mid-flight as required, Chi emphasised.

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Since the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been configured for multi-tube launches from various platforms like trucks, planes, unmanned aerial vehicles and ships, the officials can dispatch the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from land, air and sea, said Chi in his presentation before the defence technology show held last week in Taipei.

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“Also, multiple layers of tubes can be mounted at the launching platforms, allowing a number of the munitions to be ejected at the same time,” said Chi, adding that the officials can use the drones day or night.

“The munition is suitable for saturation attacks and precise, beyond-visual-range strikes on fixed and mobile targets using its multi-module seeker,” Chi stated, speaking about the Type 2’s artificial intelligence-guided capability, smart-recognition and anti-radiation features, and electro-optic and infrared image tracking systems.

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