Teng Yun (kamikaze drone)

2022: Kamikaze Drone Announcement

On November 15, 2022, Taiwan unveiled the Teng Yun kamikaze drone, which has been under development by the Chung Shang National Institute of Science and Technology for several years. Drones can destroy enemy radars located at sea or on land.

Teng Yun is capable of hitting targets at a distance of 1,000 km. In addition to disabling enemy radar stations, locally made kamikaze drones can destroy other unmanned aerial vehicles. To launch barraging ammunition, a launcher on a wheeled chassis is used. It can accommodate up to 12 such developments.

Taiwan shows future kamikaze drones

The drone exhibition was organized by the National Institute of Science and Technology of Chung Shan (NCSIST), a Taiwanese state-owned manufacturer of military technology that develops many weapons of the armed forces of the Republic of China, such as the Hsiung Feng anti-ship missile and the Yun Feng supersonic cruise missile.

This means the system can be launched from anywhere on Taiwan's main island on a shot-and-fly basis, but also allows it to be transported to remote island sites when needed. Fixed ground launchers or those aboard surface warships of the Republic of China Navy can also presumably deploy Chien Hsiang drones.

The Teng Yun was first spotted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Expo in 2017, but its official announcement came much later. Production and delivery of 104 copies will be completed by 2025. According to NCSIST, Teng Yun is primarily designed to conduct intelligence in the interests of the armed forces of the Republic of China. Focus Taiwan reports that the drone, first introduced in 2015, is equipped with a synthetic aperture radar and can be controlled via satellite. NCSIST claims that the Teng Yun's maximum flight duration is 20 hours.

In order to operate a large number of drones that are being developed in Taiwan, the Republic of China's armed forces recruited 115 drone operators to fill the shortage of personnel in this area. Focus Taiwan reported that these recruits were trained at NCSIST and a knowledge test in an exam conducted by the Taiwan Civil Aeronautics Authority. How the new qualified operators will be distributed across the services remains to be seen, as well as what types of drones they will be able to control. However, the development suggests that Taiwan is seeking to catch up in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, which experts say is an insufficient area of Taiwan's overall military strategy.^[1]

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