A nest of hornets ready to rush on Chinese landing craft and other warships in the event of an invasion of Taiwan: this is what the country’s army is preparing. Thus, more than a thousand lurking munitions, otherwise called suicide drones, such as the Switchblade 300 and Altius 600M, will be sold to Taiwan by the United States. These drones are already widely used in Ukraine and have shown their effectiveness on the ground. This significant number of drones would make it possible to engage warships in the event of an amphibious invasion and to saturate enemy interception resources.
These weapons would be used in addition to missilesmissiles guided and other anti-tank weapons. With a longer range, the Altius could also be used as sensorssensors to create a network and improve the effectiveness of targeting other Taiwanese weapons. Because these drones, just like the Switchblade, can be used for reconnaissance, for example, and no longer as ammunition. Their greater autonomy would also allow them to reach more distant targets by eliminating radar systems and communications networks in the depth to reduce the effectiveness of Chinese forces.
Video presentation of the Switchblade 300. © AeroVironment
The porcupine strategy
The idea of the Taiwanese armed forces could also be to use these cheap lurking munitions to trigger Chinese defenses and make them waste their expensive anti-aircraft missiles.
It is the Cooperation Agency in mattermatter of Security and Defense (DSCA) of the American army which recently announced its agreement for the delivery of these weapons. The order would consist mainly of Swtichblade 300. This lurking ammunition is launched from a tube by an operator in the field, or by swarm with a launcherlauncher multitube. The on-board munition has a warhead similar in size to a grenadegrenade 40 millimeters. The range of the drone is 10 kilometers, but can be extended to 30 kilometers with the latest versions.
The Altius 600M, for its part, is more imposing and its range is extended to 440 kilometers. The craft is pulled from launch tubes onto a trailer before spreading its wings for cruising flight. This equipment, considered low cost, will be part of Taiwan’s defense system, baptized with the evocative name of “porcupine strategy”. It remains to be seen if and how Chinese forces could confront it.
