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Taiwan has been enhancing its unmanned aerial system capabilities. Its Ministry of National Defense Armaments Bureau’s Materiel Production Center is developing a new family of indigenous surveillance and weaponized multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to address potential tactical requirements by the Republic of China Army.

Three new multirotor UAV prototypes – the UAV Forward Observation System, the UAV Patrolling System, and the Multi-Purpose Drone System – under development were showcased recently.

The UAV Forward Observation System is being trialled as an organic airborne surveillance and targeting capability for the next-generation 8×8 Cloud Leopard II M2 Mortar Carrier being evaluated for the Chinese Army. The system comprises an expendable, compact trirotor UAV, equipped with a high-definition camera suite and a GPS tracker. When launched, the air vehicle will travel to an adversary’s last known or suspected location, where it will activate its tracker to generate precise GPS co-ordinates for the mortar’s fire-control system.

“The UAV is designed to relay the target’s co-ordinates and track its activities in real time to support the mortar crews in their firing preparations and to assess the tactical situation,” a spokesperson told janes.com.