Flying over the blue waters off Taiwan’s east coast, a light aircraft equipped with a powerful U.S.-made radar slung under its belly tracks Chinese warships, collecting data its operator is keen to provide to Taipei’s security forces.
Small Taiwanese operator Apex Aviation, better known for pilot training and charter flights, is pitching the surveillance flights to a government that has started engaging civilian firms in developing new technologies for its “whole of society resilience” initiative.
The government has invited businesses, research groups and other organisations to take on more active roles, including backing up communications and logistics, shoring up cyber defences and, potentially contributing to surveillance and intelligence-gathering.
While common in countries such as the United States, this joint military-civilian approach is new for Taiwan, whose armed forces are increasingly hard-pressed responding to daily Chinese incursions in the skies and waters around the island.
Taipei has said it aims to boost defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2030 and will introduce a $40 billion supplementary budget, including “significant” new U.S. arms purchases.
Apex is seeking a role in that build-up. But unlike companies that have received defence contracts so far, the airline wants to run its surveillance operation in-house, while remaining open to transferring equipment to authorities.
“These Chinese drills are happening more and more frequently, getting closer and closer. That’s what creates that sense of urgency. If we don’t jump in now, we might not even get the chance later,” Apex Chairman Wilson Kao told Reuters.
Apex declined to give estimates on potential revenue from such a deal.
OPEN TO NEW IDEAS
Taiwan’s defence ministry has so far been cautious about external partners, telling Reuters it is able to effectively monitor Chinese activities and currently has no plans for cooperation. But it said it was open to new ideas.
“The ministry welcomes discussions on ‘public-private collaboration’ to strengthen national defence build-up,” it said in a statement.