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The Albatross, also known as the Chung Shyang II, is a medium unmanned aerial vehicle made by National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. It is in service with the Republic of China Army and the Republic of China Navy.
Description
The Chung Shyang II UAV can perform surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, artillery spotting and battle damage assessment sorties for the military and perform other duties such as border patrol, and aerial reconnaissance for various government agencies.
The Albatross has a wingspan of 8 meters and a range of more than 180km. Endurance is approximately 12 hours. It carries an electro-optical payload and can operate in both day and night. In addition to its military capabilities the Albatross can also be used for civilian applications such as agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry, disaster monitoring, environmental protection, traffic control, target searching, position recognition, coastal patrol, communications relay, and hazardous terrain survey. Officials have refused to comment on whether the type can be armed.
Development
CSIST unveiled a prototype of the UAV at the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition in August, 2005. CSIST began researching UAVs in 2002, which resulted in the first Chung Shyang I UAV, then later the Chung Shyang II.
Funding for the project has been passed by the Legislative Yuan, it is expected to be finished in 2011.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) military is currently planning to develop an armed variant of the UAV, and procure around 3 battalions of armed UAVs for the Republic of China Army. Some industry sources have stated that an armed variant would include an 800 kg (1,760 lb) payload, an early-warning radar, AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and possibly domestically sourced munitions.
Service history
In 2019 a Navy Albatross made the types first fly-over demonstration during an exercise in Pingtung.
Incidents
Albatross' have crashed in 2012, 2013, and 2016.
On Jan. 24 2018, an Albatross crashed into the sea during a military exercise off of Taitung. Mechanical failure is suspected to be the cause of the crash.
Operators
- Republic of China Armed Forces- 32 (2014)
Specifications
General characteristics Performance
- Endurance: 12 hours
See also
References
- Ng, JR (August 2019). "Asia-Pacific Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Directory 2018". Asia Military Review: 14–27. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
- ^ Keck, Zachary. "Taiwan's Using Drones to Spy on China". thediplomat.com. The Diplomat. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- Elaine Hou and Kuo Chung-han, Rita Cheng,. "New U.S. drone sale policy could be good for Taiwan". focustaiwan.tw. Focus Taiwan. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ and Evelyn Kao, Wang Cheng-chung. "Albatross drone makes first fly-over demonstration in Pingtung". focustaiwan.tw. Focus Taiwan. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
- "Albatross Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems". www.ncsist.org.tw. NCSIST. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
- Peck, Michael. "Taiwan shows off UAVs". www.c4isrnet.com. C4ISR.net. Retrieved 17 January 2020.
- ^ SOBIE, BRENDAN. "Government-controlled CSIST unveils Chung Shyang II mock-up and hopes to develop strike version for military". www.flightglobal.com. Flight Global. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- Yeh, Joseph. "Military UAV goes missing during training exercise: Taiwanese Army". www.asianews.eu. Asia News. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
