Monday, June 24, 2024
Sale Of Over 1,000 Kamikaze Drones To Taiwan Points To Grand “Hellscape” Counter-China Plans
The U.S. government has approved the potential sale of over a thousand loitering munitions, also known as kamikaze drones, a mix of Switchblade 300 and ALTIUS 600M types, both of which have been used in combat in Ukraine, to the Taiwanese armed forces. Large numbers of relatively cheap kamikaze drones would give Taiwan extremely valuable additional capacity to attack Chinese forces during any future conflict across the Taiwan Strait. In particular, the loitering munitions could be used to engage warships in the strait, and especially incoming Chinese landing craft, in response to an amphibious invasion. Altius 600s could also be used to deploy resilient mesh sensor networks over large portions of the strait, which could drastically enhance the targeting efficiency for other Taiwanese weaponry and overall situational awareness.
