The United States, Taiwan and Japan will share real-time data from naval surveillance drones, according to four people familiar with the project, in a sign of Washington’s push for greater coordination in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
US defense contractor General Atomics will start delivering four MQ-9B Sea Guardian drones to Taipei in 2025. A maritime variant of the Reaper drone widely used by the U.S. Air Force in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, it can spot, track and target enemy ships and radars.
This capability would be crucial in a Taiwan war, where Chinese surface ships and submarines would operate around Taiwan. It could also enhance the ability of Taiwan and its neighbors to have comprehensive, real-time visibility into the PLA Navy’s peacetime operations along the First Island Chain, which stretches from Japan to the Philippines.
Washington will allow the jet to be integrated into the same system that will be used by the U.S. military and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the region, said four people familiar with MQ-9 sales.
This would allow the U.S. and its allies and partners to observe the same information that the drones are gathering simultaneously—a setup known as the common operational picture.
“We will take a practical approach to ensure the integration is done as quickly as possible,” said a person with knowledge of the project.
Including Taiwan in the interoperability structure between the U.S. military and its allies is extremely sensitive. Washington ended its mutual defense treaty with Taipei in 1979 when it shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing. China has often accused the United States of stoking tensions by interfering in Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and has threatened to seize by force.
“Data sharing between Japan and Taiwan, between Taiwan and the Philippines, between the U.S. and these three countries is very important, but it’s also one of the big no-nos because China would see it as an escalation,” said a senior U.S. official officer.
The Pentagon declined to comment. Taiwan’s presidential office declined to comment for this story.
A military official involved in the program said Taiwan’s military would be trained along with counterparts in the United States and Japan on how to use the unmanned aerial system.
“MQ-9 is a relatively new system for this theater and we have worked very hard to start developing the M-Q9 orbital network with our partners – as we have done in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere That’s in Europe,” said Lt. Gen. Steven Rudder, who retired last year as commander of the U.S. Marine Corps in the Indo-Pacific region.
Once the Marines receive the first MQ-9s in Hawaii, the U.S. Air Force is cleared to fly them out of Japan, and the Japanese Coast Guard and Navy begin deploying the drones, the allies will “began to explore how to create a common operational picture,” he added.
There are clear advantages to linking intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, said Heino Klinck, a former senior Pentagon official in charge of Asia.
“The PLA’s increasing aggression and incursions into Taiwan’s and Japan’s ADIZs certainly provide a clear rationale for increased cooperation between the two countries’ armed forces and other like-minded stakeholders, including the United States. “