The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday denied media speculation that it would not purchase new locally developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) from the ministry’s main development institute after the first batch of the aircraft the MND received underperformed.
In a released statement, the MND said that a total of eight sets of UAVs it purchased from the Taoyuan-based Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) have all met the military’s standard.
The aircraft performed well during 375 hours of test flights, the MND said, refuting a Chinese-language Next Weekly report yesterday which said the military was unimpressed with the UAVs it received from CSIST last year
Citing an incident in March in which one of the UAVs went missing during a routine training mission, the report quoted unidentified military sources as saying that these Made-in-Taiwan aircraft all performed poorly.
The UAV in question went missing in the morning of March 7 off the coast of Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里).
In response, the MND yesterday called the weekly report “fictitious.”
An initial investigation has determined that the March 7 incident should be blamed on the “lack of experience” of military personnel who remotely controlled the aircraft.
The flight control system of the UAV in question also needed minor adjustments, the MND statement said.
The UAVs are currently under the command of the Army Aviation Special Forces Command to serve in a surveillance capacity, according to the military.
The UAVs can log a maximum of over 12 hours of continuous flight time. They are remotely piloted or self-piloted aircraft that can carry cameras, sensors and communications equipment.
Source: China Post
