Taipei Times reports that the Taiwanese Coast Guard Administration (CGA) will submit a UAV procurement budget to the legislature with a mind to deploy them in 2007 to help keep track of Chinese marine intrusions. Other newspaper reports hold that Bell Helicopter has already had contact with the government. Bell makes the Eagle Eye craft for the U.S. Coast Guard. An official running the CGA’s procurement department said that they had asked the few companies that were “producing mature UAVs” to offer options and pricing.
The CGA unveiled its budget request with specific references to improving its capabilities of monitoring the disputed Pratas Islands, a small, desolate chain a couple hundred miles southwest of Taiwan that could prove helpful in screening against submarine incursions.