Taiwan simulates coordinated drone fleets for maritime defense

By Nathan Brooks

Taiwan has completed simultaneous simulations of two drone fleets, each comprising 10 aircraft, as Taipei works toward autonomous maritime missions without human intervention.

The South China Morning Post reported that the program pairs Taiwan’s Ocean Affairs Council with National Cheng Kung University. It is the second step in a shift from controlling individual aircraft to coordinating two drone detachments.

What has Taiwan already tested?

Researchers programmed the aircraft to maintain a minimum separation of 100 feet in three-dimensional space. The system also incorporates leader-follower formation flying and dynamic obstacle avoidance, intended to help fleets respond quickly to changing conditions and unexpected hazards in open water.

The simulation establishes coordination in a controlled digital environment. It does not establish performance during the actual sea and weather trials still ahead.

The planned architecture goes beyond identical aircraft performing identical work. Different drone types would coordinate their movements, divide tasks and plan routes, primarily for maritime surveillance. The council wants those fleets to execute missions without human intervention.

What does the next stage test?

“The next stage will involve hardware-in-the-loop testing, prototype integration and flight trials over actual maritime areas to assess reliability under different sea and weather conditions,” the council said.

The council described three activities as the roadmap, rather than completed work:

• Hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Prototype integration.
• Flight trials over actual maritime areas.

Prototype integration will combine the tested coordination methods with physical aircraft. Field trials will then determine whether the fleet can maintain separation, avoid obstacles and function across different sea and weather conditions.

The next test is no longer whether the simulation can fly. It is whether the hardware can.

Order matters. A successful simulation cannot compensate for a prototype that fails to integrate its controls, and an integrated prototype still needs open-water trials before the Coast Guard can judge reliability.

Which aircraft are in the program?

Current work focuses on three Western-made drones:

• Jump 20.
• V-BAT.
• Flexrotor.

Taipei has received its first shipment of U.S.-made V-BAT drones. Shield AI builds the vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft, which the program considers suitable for Coast Guard work.

The V-BAT can launch vertically from the constrained deck space of non-aircraft-carrier ships. It offers endurance of more than 12 hours, suiting extended missions and ships that lack room for major modifications.

Long endurance matters because the Coast Guard must cover 24 cables and monitor nearly 100 China-linked boats. Vertical launch matters because those ships do not require major renovation.

That is useful for the Coast Guard, but the program still has to prove the aircraft can work from its ships in real maritime conditions.

Why do the undersea cables matter?

Civilian Chinese ships have damaged undersea cables that Taipei relies on. The Coast Guard Administration has increased defensive patrols around 24 cables and closely monitors nearly 100 China-linked boats.

Chinese “research vessels” continue to loiter over Taiwan-U.S. undersea cables, mimicking Russian trawlers in the Atlantic. The proposed system aims to support the Coast Guard against Beijing’s increasingly aggressive grey-zone activity in surrounding waters.

Patrolling 24 cables while tracking nearly 100 boats places pressure on manned operations. The proposed fleet could divide surveillance tasks without continuous human control, extending coverage across those assignments.

Taiwan has cleared the simulation stage for 20 coordinated aircraft. Hardware integration and real-water trials must still establish whether that coordination holds up in the sea and weather conditions the Coast Guard will face. Until then, the fleet remains an engineering program, not a deployed maritime capability.