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The US, Japan, and Taiwan are planning to begin sharing real-time data from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) as part of a plan to enhance interoperability in the Indo-Pacific, a US report stated.
Washington is purportedly determined to boost military coordination between its allies under the pretext that if China were to attack Taiwan, such a scenario would call for building a “common operational picture” using reconnaissance drones’ capability.
Four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones - a maritime version of the American Reaper UAV - are to be delivered to Taipei by the US defense contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems some time in 2025, sources were cited as saying. The drones, which can be configured with cross-domain capabilities for a broad range of maritime surveillance, are said to have been successful in locating, tracking, and targeting enemy ships and radars. The UAVs, once they arrive in Taiwan, would be allowed to integrate into the system deployed by the US military and the Japanese Self-Defense Force in the region. Accordingly, reconnaissance information gathered simultaneously by the drones would be available to all partners in the system.
Taiwan’s military would then be taught how to operate the new drone system, in conjunction with US and Japanese counterparts, the report added.
“We will be taking a practical approach to ensuring that integration is done as quickly as possible,” a source told the report.
Lt-Gen Steven Rudder, former head of the US Marine Corps forces in the Indo-Pacific, explained:
“The MQ-9 is a relatively new system to this theatre, and we have tried very hard to begin to develop an M-Q9 web of orbits with our partners out here - much like we have in the Middle East, Africa and other places in Europe.”
Washington is reportedly making this move despite the fact that it will be seen as a provocation by the Chinese and bound to inflate tensions even further.
“The sharing of data between Japan and Taiwan, between Taiwan and the Philippines, between the US and all three of them, is so crucial, but it’s also one of the big taboos because China will see it as escalatory,” a senior US military official was cited as admitting.
There has not yet been any comment on the report from the Pentagon, or Taiwan’s presidential office.
The United States is officially committed to a “one-China” policy, which concedes that Taiwan is part of China. However, the United States has kept informal relations with Taipei and provides arms to its government, despite the fact that Beijing considers any relations between foreign nations and Taipei to be meddling in China's domestic affairs.
10 January 2023, 04:04 GMT
The report comes as NATO allies have been building up their presence in the Indo-Pacific, with the US-led military bloc labeling China a security challenge last year. Japan, the United States, Australia and Canada conducted joint naval exercises over three days in the East China Sea this month, aimed at strengthening interoperability.
Peddling the 'China threat' narrative, Washington has been resorting to tactics of intimidation, such as sending warships and military aircraft, engaging in close-in reconnaissance and generally flexing its military muscles near China’s territorial sea and airspace. As part of this policy, in the first quarter of 2023, Washington proposed $9.1Bln for military investments in the Asia-Pacific within the framework of its Pacific Deterrence Initiative.
In addition to the US being part of several alliances and partnerships throughout the region at present - such as AUKUS, which groups it with Australia and the UK, and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) with Australia, India, and Japan - Washington has also opened four new military bases in the Philippines. Earlier this year, the US also signed a defense and maritime surveillance pact with Papua New Guinea.
In response, China has warned that to push for "such alliances in the region" is "a way of kidnapping regional countries and fuelling confrontation, which will only plunge the Asia-Pacific into a whirlpool of disputes and conflicts". China's minister of national defense, General Li Shangfu, speaking at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore recently, warned of the dangers of a severe conflict breaking out between Beijing and Washington.
“It is undeniable that a severe conflict or confrontation between China and the US would be an unbearable disaster for the world,” Li stated.
The minister also noted that, "we, the Chinese, will decide how to solve the Taiwan issue. This issue does not tolerate the intervention of foreign forces.”
However, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Thursday denied media reports about plans to exchange real-time data from naval reconnaissance drones with Japan and the United States.
"The MND has not yet been informed of plans to share real-time data from naval reconnaissance drones with the US and Japan as has been reported by some media outlets. We would like to kindly request that due diligence be exercised in verifying the source of information to prevent misleading the public," the ministry said on Twitter.
The the situation over the island has been escalating recently after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April