New Taiwanese drone can attack alone and in a group

Alexander Sychev

The first 104 ammunition, along with launchers, should be transferred to the armed forces by 2025. Over time, it is planned to equip all aviation, naval and ground forces of Taipei with these weapons.

The drone is a triangular glider with a wingspan of two meters and a fuselage length of 1.2 meters. The tail is missing. Instead, in the middle of the wing, two pairs of planes for stabilization are installed on the body, which are laid out in flight.

A passive radar homing head is located in the bow of the vehicle. It detects electromagnetic radiation and directs the drone towards the source. There is also an inertial guidance system.

Behind the radio-electronic unit is a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing about two kilograms.

In the tail section is a low-power piston engine that rotates the pusher propeller. The maximum speed of the "Rising Sword" is 185 kilometers per hour. The launch is carried out by a powder accelerator. The assembled weight of the kamikaze drone reaches only six kilograms.

The Chien Hsiang missile is launched from a truck semi-trailer, but stationary placement on land and on board a ship is also possible. In front of the semi-trailer there is a hardware compartment with antennas on a telescopic mast for communication and control of the drone.

The main part of the semi-trailer platform is occupied by a launcher, made in the form of three pallets with a hydraulic vertical guidance drive. In total, 12 drones are placed in three transport and launch containers.

The rectangular cell, in which the drone is located on the guide rails, is covered by a lifting front wall. The drone does not have wing folding mechanisms, so the dimensions of the containers are quite impressive.

The starting powder engine throws the “sword” out of the “sheath”, after which the internal combustion engine starts to work. He displays ammunition in a given area.

The undoubted advantages of the rocket are the flight range, which is a thousand kilometers, and the duration - five hours.

These qualities mean that the "Sword" can not only cross the Taiwan Strait, but also strike not only at the radar stations on warships and the coast of China, but also inland at a distance of about 600 kilometers from the coastline.

Arriving in a given area, the ammunition starts patrolling. He is looking for any source of strong electromagnetic radiation. Even if the signal is interrupted, and the drone did not have time to leave the attack trajectory, it will wait for the next activation of the station. Rising Sword attacks on its own. Chien Hsiang crashes into the target at a speed of about one hundred kilometers per hour and explodes.

Developers from a Taiwanese institute claim that, although the drone was created extremely simple and cheap, it has enough intelligence to solve combat tasks both independently and in a group, since all twelve drones can be launched at the same time. In this case, the exchange of the necessary data and the distribution of the detected targets between the drones is carried out through the ground control station.