Taiwan teams up with US start-up on underwater drones to boost island’s defences

SCMP | Aug. 17, 2026, 9:04 a.m. | Original

The deal with Vatn Systems aims to strengthen Taipei’s asymmetric warfare capabilities amid growing military pressure from Beijing

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Taiwan’s deal with Vatn Systems includes plans to field the US defence firm’s S12 autonomous underwater vehicle. Photo: LinkedIn/Vatn Systems

Taiwan has signed a deal with US defence start-up Vatn Systems to develop autonomous underwater vehicles and strengthen its asymmetric warfare capabilities amid growing military pressure from Beijing.
Executed through the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) – Taiwan’s government-funded top weapons developer – the agreement marks the latest in a series of moves to expand the island’s unmanned underwater capabilities .
Under the memorandum of understanding signed last week, NCSIST and Vatn will explore artificial intelligence -enabled command-and-control systems, deploy autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and establish supply-chain and maintenance support in Taiwan.

NCSIST said the partnership would combine overseas technology with Taiwan’s industrial and research capabilities to accelerate AUV development and systems integration, while strengthening underwater reconnaissance and maritime defence resilience.

“Taiwan is one of many allies rethinking what undersea defence looks like,” Vatn co-founder and CEO Nelson Mills was quoted as saying in a statement last week.

“Building affordable undersea autonomy for US and allied partners and deploying that capability at scale is core to our strategy, and this agreement gives us a chance to explore how that technology can support Taiwan’s naval modernisation efforts.”

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