A swarm of cheap American drones just scored a perfect kill rate against ship targets in the Taiwan Strait. Every single one hit. In early June, Taiwan’s Army conducted the Tianma Exercise — the island’s first-ever live-fire anti-ship drone drill — using Anduril Altius-600M loitering munitions against offshore maritime targets. The Taiwanese Military News Agency confirmed a 100 percent success rate across the full kill chain: target search, identification, command authorization, and precision strike. The message to Beijing could not be clearer: 2,000 cheap drones can do what a dozen expensive anti-ship missiles used to.

The Tianma Exercise

The drill was carried out by the UAV Battalion of the 21st Artillery Command under Taiwan’s Third Combat Zone. At least three towed flatbed launchers, each loaded with four Altius drones, deployed to Taiwan’s west coast — the side facing China. The Altius-600M is a tube-launched loitering munition weighing just 27 lb (12 kg). It flies at roughly 90 km/h, can loiter for up to two hours searching for targets, and carries a 6.6 lb (3 kg) modular warhead — a shaped charge or thermobaric option depending on the mission. Its range with warhead is approximately 160 km; in ISR configuration, it reaches 440 km. Against the offshore targets simulating approaching naval vessels, the drones achieved a clean sweep. The Military News Agency confirmed success across every phase of the engagement: autonomous target search, positive identification, human-in-the-loop authorization, and terminal strike.

The Porcupine Strategy in Action

Taiwan has been buying these drones in enormous quantities. A first batch of 291 Altius-600M units arrived under a $300 million Foreign Military Sales package approved in June 2024 (a separate $60 million case covered 720 Switchblade 300s), with all deliveries complete by March 2026. In January 2026, Taiwan disclosed a second, much larger order: 1,554 Altius-700M strike variants (with heavier 35 lb warheads) and 478 Altius-600ISR surveillance drones, worth an estimated $1.1 billion. Across all orders, Taiwan has approximately 2,000 Altius loitering munitions delivered or on the way. This is asymmetric warfare by design. A single Altius-600M costs roughly $1 million — cheaper than a Harpoon anti-ship missile ($1.4–2.25M) and a fraction of the cost of the ships it targets. The strategy draws directly from Ukraine’s success against the Russian Black Sea Fleet: overwhelm an invasion force with cheap, expendable, precision-guided drones rather than fighting ship-to-ship.

Hellscape Takes Shape

Taiwan is building an entire organizational structure around distributed drone warfare. A new Littoral Combat Command — combining Marines, Navy missile brigades, and fast attack craft — is planned for activation in 2026. Loitering munitions are a core component. The Altius-600M will not sink a destroyer on its own. Its 3 kg warhead is designed for small craft, landing ships, and logistics vessels — the thin-skinned targets that make up the bulk of any amphibious invasion fleet. Dozens launched simultaneously from concealed positions along Taiwan’s coastline could saturate the defenses of approaching landing craft at a fraction of the cost of traditional anti-ship missiles. The Tianma Exercise proved the concept works. The next question is whether 2,000 drones are enough — or whether Taiwan needs 20,000. Sources: USNI News, Army Recognition, Taipei Times, The Defense Post