Taiwan, U.S. firm to make missile, underwater drone

TAIPEI (AFP) — Taiwan will jointly manufacture a missile and an underwater drone with a United States (US) company for the first time, officials said Thursday, as Taipei seeks to boost domestic weapons and ammunition production.

The democratic island faces the constant threat of an invasion by China, which claims it is part of its territory, and is under US pressure to spend more on its own defense.

Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) agreed earlier this year with US defense firm Anduril to jointly make the company’s Barracuda-500, a low-cost, autonomous cruise missile.

On Thursday, NCSIST and Anduril signed another agreement to co-produce the company’s underwater drone.

These are Taiwan’s first such agreements with a foreign company, NCSIST president Li Shih-chiang told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“Our purpose is if in the warfare, even the blockade, we can manufacture every weapon we need to protect ourselves,” Li said on the sidelines of the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition, where the Barracuda is on display.

Anduril’s Taiwan head Alex Chang said the focus of the joint cooperation was on “mass producibility” and making local production sustainable.

The company would “work very closely” with the US and Taiwan, Chang told AFP.

NCSIST said it would take 18 months to build the supply chain in Taiwan for the Barracuda-500, which use 100 percent Taiwanese components.

Taiwan has ramped up spending on military equipment and weapons over the past decade, and has its own defense industry.

But the island remains heavily reliant on US arms sales to deter China.