Taiwan’s plan to acquire Israeli “takeover” technology as part of a counter-drone network has set off a debate over its use and the island’s security strategy as it tries to keep pace with rapidly evolving unmanned threats.
At a briefing for suppliers on the procurement requirements earlier this month, Taiwan’s homeland security office outlined specifications for a new system to protect the island’s airports, power plants and other critical infrastructure from incursions by small commercial drones.
The system – separate from the military’s programme – would require equipment capable of electromagnetic jamming and spoofing as well as a takeover function that could seize control of an intruding drone and land it using hacking techniques.
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Slides presented by the government-controlled National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), Taiwan’s top weapons developer, at the November 14 briefing said equipment “must possess decoding functions” for OcuSync versions 2, 3, 4 and 4+ – the drone transmission system used by DJI.
Mainland Chinese company DJI accounts for an estimated 70 to 75 per cent of the global civilian drone market, including Taiwan.
The requirement prompted concern that the government was tailoring specifications around a single commercial brand, and questions over whether decoding DJI’s encrypted links was technologically feasible.