U.S.-based Kratos Defense and Taiwan’s military have successfully tested a \u200bnew jet-powered attack drone, a move aimed at rapidly boosting the island’s ability to field “large numbers” of low-cost drone amid a rising Chinese threat. In a recent test campaign at Kratos’ \u2060facility in Oklahoma City, engineers from both sides validated the integration of a Taiwanese \u200cmission payload on the \u2060Mighty Hornet IV attack drone, Kratos said in a statement on Thursday. Kratos called the test a “milestone” that \u200dcould pave the way for deeper cooperation between the company and Taiwan’s top military research body, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST). The effort comes \u2060as Taiwan seeks to expand security ties with the United States, including jointly developing and manufacturing weapons, while China steps up military pressure to force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims. In \u200ca statement, NCSIST described the pro
ject as a “new milestone in U.S.-Taiwan defence technology collaboration,” saying such cooperation can shorten development timelines and meet Taiwan’s needs \u2060for “rapid countermeasures and long-range preemptive strikes.” The Mighty Hornet IV is being developed as a low-cost, cruise missile-like weapon, and the two sides aim to base a “large quantity” of the systems in Taiwan as both a deterrent and \u2060a wartime asset, according to Kratos. China, which views Taiwan as its own territory despite the island’s objections, has been sending warplanes and warships into the skies \u200dand waters around Taiwan on an almost daily basis in what Taipei calls “grey zone” tactics. It held its latest large-scale war games near the island in \u200clate December. The number \u200bof detected Chinese military \u200caircraft, including fighters and drones, operating near Taiwan rose 23% in 2025 from a year earlier, Taiwan’s defence minister said this week. Taipei has been working to \u200cse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
U.S.-based Kratos Defense and Taiwan’s military have successfully tested a \u200bnew jet-powered attack drone, a move aimed at rapidly boosting the island’s ability to field “large numbers” of low-cost drone amid a rising Chinese threat. In a recent test campaign at Kratos’ \u2060facility in Oklahoma City, engineers from both sides validated the integration of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n