Taiwan drills U.S. Altius-600M loitering munitions in first public training.

Taiwan’s army has released its first footage of Altius-600M loitering munitions training at the Neijiao drone center in Tainan, overseen by Defense Minister Wellington Koo, only months after receiving the initial U.S.-supplied batch from Anduril Industries. The live and simulator drills signal Taipei’s intent to fold long-range, networked attack drones into routine army operations, adding a new layer of deterrence against PLA forces around the island.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has quietly crossed another threshold in its drone build-up, with the Military News Agency publishing the first video of Altius-600M loitering munitions being trained in a realistic operational setting at the army’s Neijiao drone school in Tainan. In the footage, soldiers move from classroom instruction to simulator consoles, then out to launch rails for live firing with training rounds, while Defense Minister Wellington Koo looks on, underscoring that the U.S.-made attack drones are no longer an abstract capability on paper but a system the force intends to use routinely for both precision strike and ISR along Taiwan’s most exposed approaches.
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The Altius-600M is a 12 kg loitering munition, with a modular nose that can carry ISR sensors, electronic intelligence payloads, radio frequency decoys, communications relay kits, or an electronic warfare module (Picture source: Taiwanese MoD)

The army’s drone training center, located at the Neijiao base in Tainan, falls under the command responsible for training, education, and doctrine. It trains operators, instructors, and maintenance personnel on a wide range of reconnaissance and combat drones, using a combination of an indoor flight hall, immersive classrooms, and outdoor launch areas. The arrival of long-range loitering munitions places this school at the center of Taiwan’s doctrinal evolution and moves it away from a narrow focus on pilot qualification toward a broader role as a skills hub for the use of long-range, expendable effects connected to maneuver units and artillery.

The Altius family, developed by Area-I and later integrated into the Anduril portfolio, is based on an open platform able to host different flight control software suites and to fit into various mission architectures. The Altius-600M is a 12 kg loitering munition, with a modular nose that can carry ISR sensors, electronic intelligence payloads, radio frequency decoys, communications relay kits or an electronic warfare module, as well as a 3 kg warhead designed to neutralize high-value targets. Its endurance is close to four hours, with a stated range of around 400 kilometers, which allows it to operate beyond the coastal horizon or to track armored columns in depth. The airframe is designed for multi-domain launches from tubes mounted on land vehicles, helicopters, aircraft, or naval platforms, while the Altius-700M extends the concept with an airframe sized for heavier payloads of roughly 35 pounds.

Beyond the flight envelope, a key element of this family lies in the coordinated management of multiple drones. The platform is described as a networked system that allows cooperation between individual air vehicles, each sharing sensor data and targeting information with the others to carry out missions that a single unit could not achieve. A single operator can supervise a group of Altius drones, with some configured for sensing and others for strike, with a level of automation that reduces the workload associated with flying while maintaining human control over engagement decisions. In a typical scenario, a stand-off mothership receives alerts when a radar or surface-to-air missile battery is detected, directs a drone to remain on station over the potential target, and, if required, authorizes a strike by a separate munition.

For Taiwan, these characteristics translate into a wide set of tactical options. Firing sections dispersed along the coastline can launch salvos of loitering munitions, contribute to a Recognized Maritime Picture (RMP) and a Common Operating Picture (COP), then relocate before enemy counter-fire. Integrated into command networks that combine Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) drones, radars, and ground-based fire systems, Altius-600M adds an extra layer of sensing and strike, able to shadow a naval group or disrupt command centers using electronic warfare payloads. Experience from Ukraine, where Altius-600M appears in a United States support package, suggests that such systems can constrain an adversary’s freedom of maneuver by forcing protection of convoys, artillery assets, and command posts against attacks from above.

This training event forms part of a broader set of cooperation efforts between Taiwan and the United States, including the acquisition of Altius-600M, Switchblade 300 loitering munitions, and other long-range strike and ISR capabilities. For Beijing, the training images with Altius-600M show that US-supplied loitering munitions have become an integral component of Taiwan’s deterrent posture, within an Indo-Pacific security architecture where the rapid spread of armed drones and autonomous functions alters the regional military balance and complicates any decision to resort to force.