(Bloomberg) -- The Taiwan Ministry of Defense has signed formal agreements with the US government allowing it to buy as many as 1,000 attack drones from AeroVironment Inc. and Anduril Industries Inc. to aid in blunting a potential Chinese assault on the island democracy, according to people in industry familiar with the transaction.
Taiwan signed a “letter of offer and acceptance” in late September, the step before signed contracts that specify quantities, dollar values and delivery dates. Those contracts could be signed soon, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the unannounced action.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on any pending Taiwan sales.
Attack drones have burgeoned into a major component of modern warfare. Russian and Ukrainian forces have deployed thousands of drones to spy on each other and for attacks in their continuing warfare, while unmanned aerial vehicles were used in an Iranian attack on Israel in April.
The transactions demonstrate “that both Taiwan and the U.S. are learning important lessons from the combat in Ukraine, and turning that knowledge into future procurement,” said retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a senior director with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who’s traveled to Taiwan to assess its defense needs.
In June, the State Department notified Congress that it approved the sale of as many as 291 Anduril ALTIUS 600M-V systems valued at $300 million and as many as 720 AeroVironment Switchblade 300 “B” model drones valued at as much as $60 million.
According to Anduril, its ALTIUS 600M-V is a multimission aircraft that allows a single operator to control multiple drones. It has a range of about 100 miles (160 kilometers) and a flight time of almost two hours. AeroVironment’s four-pound model can loiter over a target for as long as 20 minutes and is equipped with a specialized anti-armor warhead. It has a range of about 19 miles (30 kilometers.)
Representatives at Taiwan’s office in Washington declined to comment, as did the US-Taiwan Business Council.
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