An intercept test of Israel's developed and deployed 'Iron Beam' [Raphael Homepage]

A Taiwanese security organization has assessed that the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) has been confirmed in the Middle East war that began with airstrikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, offering lessons for Taiwan's defense strategy.

According to Taiwanese media, including Liberty Times, on the 12th, Taiwan's "Heixiong" (Black Bear) Academy presented this stance in an article published the previous day titled "The Taiwan Strait Crisis as Seen Through the US-Iran War."

The Heixiong Academy stated that the United States and Israel demonstrated a shift in the new form of warfare during the recent Middle East conflict.

Firstly, on the defensive side, the US and Israel suppressed the concentrated drone attacks from Iran by utilizing the 'Iron Beam' laser air defense weapon system, they explained.

They added that the Iron Beam, which has a clear effect despite a launch cost of only $10 (approximately 14,000 won) per shot, blocked attacks from Iranian fighter jets and drones.

Furthermore, on the offensive side, they emphasized that the US deployed 500 'LUCAS' drones, a low-cost unmanned combat attack system reportedly reverse-engineered from disassembled Iranian Shahed-136 drones, and annihilated foreign advanced air defense missile systems purchased by Iran.

The Heixiong Academy claimed that Iran's self-produced air defense systems and Chinese and Russian air defense systems revealed limitations in their response capabilities due to interoperability issues.

The Heixiong Academy also added that these results accurately indicate Taiwan's direction towards a 'Taiwanese Iron Dome' (T-Dome) and that it must respond to concentrated drone attacks using artificial intelligence (AI).

They also stressed the need for real-time information transmission from radar on Kinmen Island, Taiwan's frontline territory, to the system for analysis and countermeasure development upon target detection.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese media reported the previous day that Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai of the pro-US, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen of the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) had departed for the United States, respectively.

Taiwan's developed Sky Bow IV (Sky Bow 4) vertical missile launcher vehicle and missile (from left) [Yonhap News]