In order to strengthen the detection and tracking of increasingly frequent Chinese vessel movements in the waters surrounding Taiwan, the Taiwan Coast Guard is purchasing unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) designed by the United States. This is the Coast Guard’s first exclusive unmanned boat project.
Maritime Tactical Systems (Martac), a company headquartered in Florida, announced on the 13th that the transaction covers an undisclosed number of "Devil Ray T24" autonomous unmanned boats and plans to jointly produce them in the United States and Taiwan. Martac hailed this transaction as "one of the most important international procurement cases" for US-made unmanned surface vehicles; James Lee, CEO of Martac's Taiwanese partner Confucian, pointed out that this is "the first unmanned surface vehicle project" launched by the Coast Guard.
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Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" reported that the background of this procurement case stems from the sharp increase in China's maritime activities around Taiwan. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the number of Chinese Coast Guard vessels, scientific research vessels and other official vessels sighted around Taiwan in June, July and August this year hit a record high. In addition, Beijing has also expanded coast guard operations in the waters east of Taiwan since June, maintaining regular patrols in the waters and setting them as routine law enforcement.
The report pointed out that this unmanned boat purchase is based on the cooperation reached in 2025 between Martac, Zhishen Company and Taiwan’s National Sun Yat-sen Academy of Sciences (Chinese Academy of Sciences). The scope of cooperation between Martac and the Chinese Academy of Sciences also covers technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted target tracking, autonomous interception, and multi-vessel cooperative operations. However, Taiwan has not disclosed whether these functions will be integrated into the Coast Guard's T24 unmanned vessel.
According to the specifications announced by Martac, the "Manta Ray T24" is 8.4 meters in length and can reach a maximum burst speed of more than 50 knots. Its modular design can carry different equipment to perform multiple military tasks such as sea area surveillance and electronic warfare, mine countermeasures and anti-submarine reconnaissance.
Zhang Zhonglong, director of the Taiwan Coast Guard, said that the T24 unmanned boat and aerial drone will be mainly used for "long-range reconnaissance, investigation and remote rescue" to extend the scope of the coast patrol. These unmanned equipment will eventually operate in conjunction with active patrol ships to jointly build an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) network.
Since Taiwan has long been preparing for the Coast Guard to undertake military missions in wartime, this plan to combine ships with unmanned systems has attracted special attention. Although the Coast Guard is a civilian law enforcement agency in peacetime, according to Taiwan's "National Defense Law", the government can incorporate the Coast Guard into the national military's order of operations when a conflict breaks out. For example, the "Anping-class" frigates of the Coast Guard can be equipped with "Hsiung Feng Type 2" and "Hsiung Feng Type 3" anti-ship missiles during wartime, and have conducted live-fire training exercises many times since 2022; the most recent one was the "Cijin Ship" test firing of the Hsiung Feng Type 3 supersonic anti-ship missile in September this year.
In addition, the T24 unmanned boat itself has also demonstrated strike capabilities. It launched a training torpedo during a test in Sweden in December 2024. However, Taiwan has not yet indicated whether it will equip the T24 with weapons in the future.
Cathy Fang, a policy analyst at the Center for Science, Technology, Democracy and Society (DSET), a Taiwanese think tank, pointed out last month that the Coast Guard's unmanned maritime systems can expand the scope of surveillance and strengthen maritime evidence collection capabilities while reducing the risks faced by officers on duty. However, she also reminded that these unmanned systems must be deeply integrated with the existing command and control network and maritime patrol operations to truly be effective.
