Newscasts - Taiwan eyes sea drones to counter China, taking lessons from Ukraine

Thunder Tiger

13/06/2025 10:21

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Source: 'Reuters - General news videos'

Description: Just off the small Taiwan fishing port of Wushi on its Pacific coast, a Taiwanese company is testing what could eventually be a powerful but unglamorous new weapon in the island's military arsenal - sea drones. Ryan Brooks has more.

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Video Transcript:

Just off a small fishing port on Taiwan's Pacific coast, a local company is testing what could be a new weapon in the island's military arsenal, sea drones. They're a powerful if unglamorous weapon that's been used to great effect by Ukraine in the Black Sea against Russia. Now Taiwan's learning how it could use sea drones as an effective and low-cost way to fend off any possible Chinese invasion. China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has ramped up its military pressure over the past five years, while Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. This SeaShark 800 unmanned surface vessel, or USV, has been developed by Taiwanese manufacturer Thunder Tiger. The company's chairman, William Chen, told Reuters that they have seen USVs being deployed in Ukraine to ambush Russia, and that Taiwanese companies were paying attention.

If you look at the situation at the Taiwan Strait, we are outnumbered by China. But if we have enough USVs, we can deploy them along the coast across Taiwan. They won't know where we have placed them as they are too small to detect and can be hidden. Therefore, every step becomes a danger, and this is a deterrence.

Chen told Reuters that SeaShark 800 can carry 2,600 pounds of explosives and travel up to 310 miles. These uncrewed and remotely controlled small vessels can be guided toward ships or potentially even attack targets in the air. They're being developed in Taiwan at a time when the United States is pushing the country to transform its armed forces. With a view to wage "asymmetric warfare," using mobile, smaller and often cheaper weapons which still pack a targeted punch. Chen Kuan-ting, a lawmaker for Taiwan's ruling party who sits on the foreign affairs and defense committee, told Reuters that USVs can deter China. He says that's because Taiwan is not the attacking side.

As long as we are prepared, we can defend our capital effectively, the whole island can be defended. So now we need to figure out the most economical way to effectively deter China, so they know that if they invade Taiwan, they are going to pay a much higher cost and face greater difficulties than if it were Ukraine. This is what we do next. The best way is to prevent war from ever happening.

Taiwan's defense ministry's research and development arm has termed the sea drone plan the "Swift and Sudden" project. So far, it has a modest budget of around $26 million, with Taiwan's defense minister this week saying sea drones would be included in an additional spending package yet to be announced. Next week, Thunder Tiger will be among 12 Taiwanese and foreign companies joining a defense ministry exhibition to showcase USVs that may end up being added to Taiwan's arsenal.