Special Report: Taiwan advances Cheetah 105 mm vehicle towards production

The D3 is seen displayed at TADTE 2025. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal)

Taiwan has test-fired the production-standard variant of a new 8×8 105 mm armoured direct-fire support vehicle, marking a key step towards fielding a mobile firepower capability for counter-landing and territorial defence operations, the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA) reported on 23 September.

According to CNA, the test was conducted on the same day at the Republic of China Army's (RoCA's) Southern Combined Training and Testing Center in Tainan, Taiwan province. The vehicle was jointly developed by the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense's (MND's) Armaments Bureau and the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) under the ‘Cheetah' programme and is derived from the Clouded Leopard vehicle family.

CNA said the vehicle conducted a series of live-fire engagements using 105 mm high-explosive anti-tank tracer (HEAT-T) ammunition and a 12.7 mm remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS). The scenarios comprised static-to-moving, moving-to-static, static-to-static, and moving-to-moving engagements.

The production-standard vehicle demonstrated during the test was based on the D3 prototype exhibited at the 2025 Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE), according to CNA. Citing MND officials at the testing site, CNA said the vehicle had since undergone further refinements, including upgrades to some electro-optical systems.

The demonstration involved six 105 mm rounds, CNA said. One round initially failed to fire, prompting the crew to follow safety procedures before the vehicle fired another round and hit the target.

In a moving-to-static ‘hunter-killer' engagement, the vehicle advanced while detecting and engaging a simulated enemy amphibious infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) at a range of 1,000 m. The main armament traversed and locked onto the target before firing, CNA reported.