Editorial: Taiwan’s Navy Shoots Down a Simulated Chinese Drone

A Kidd class Destroyer (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons)

By J. Michael Cole

The Taiwanese Navy conducted a rare Standard Missile 2 (SM-2) launch on September 26 during a live-fire exercise simulating an attack by China, one day after receiving delivery of the first of 12 refurbished P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft from the U.S.

The exercise, which was open to the media, was held 60 nautical miles off the coast of Hualien in northeastern Taiwan. One SM-2 (RIM-66) surface-to-air missile, fired from the 10,500-tonne Kidd-class (Keelung-class) destroyer Makong, successfully intercepted a drone target approximately 80 seconds into flight. This was the first time since the annual Han Kuang exercises in 2007 that Taiwan test-fired the SM-2, the most modern ship-borne air interceptor fielded by the Taiwanese Navy.

Taiwan acquired four Kidd-class destroyers from the U.S. in 2001. Each is equipped with two MK26 SM-2 launchers.

Read the full story at The Diplomat