Chinese UAVs continue Taiwan incursions, says Taipei

Norinco's Loitering Dragon FL5A (pictured above) is one of the UAVs identified by Janes in a propaganda video released by the PLA against the backdrop of its military exercises around Taiwan since 4 August. (Janes/Akshara Parakala)

Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said the country continues to face incursions by Chinese unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) even after a series of live-fire drills conducted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) came to an end on 7 August.

The Kinmen Defense Command of the Republic of China Army (RoCA) announced on 10 August that one batch and one sortie of unidentified UAVs had entered over “the restricted waters” of the Beiding Island in Taiwan's Kinmen County on the evening of 9 August.

The RoCA troops stationed in the area fired flares to warn off the UAVs in accordance with standard operating procedures, the command said.

The MND has assured that the RoCA is capable of swiftly responding to such threats.

Besides adhering to standard regulations such as camouflaging “camps, facilities, and positions” for enhanced observation, the RoCA is also utilising a range of “joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) methods” to monitor and deter such threats, the MND said in the media release.

Similar incursions had been reported by the Kinmen Defense Command on 7 and 8 August. On both these days, the command detected “one batch and one sortie” of UAVs entering the Kinmen County airspace.

On 8 August the RoCA's Matsu Defense Command said it spotted “nine unknown points of light” passing over the waters near Nangan. While it is a possibility that these light points were hostile UAVs, Janes was not able to get confirmation about this from the MND.