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U.S. Approves $1.1 Billion ALTIUS Loitering Munition Package to Expand Taiwan’s Strike Reach.
The U.S. State Department has approved a potential $1.1 billion Foreign Military Sale of ALTIUS-700M and ALTIUS-600 systems to Taiwan. The deal significantly expands Taiwan’s ability to conduct long-range, networked surveillance and precision strike missions in a contested environment.
On December 17, 2025, the U.S. State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale valued at an estimated $1.1 billion to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) for ALTIUS-700M and ALTIUS-600 systems, as reported by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA). This notification goes far beyond a simple drone delivery: it would provide Taiwan with a complete family of long-range loitering munitions and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets designed to operate as a networked, multi-mission system. Structured around munitions, launch trailers, ground control stations, training, logistics and technical support, the package positions ALTIUS as a central pillar in Taiwan’s effort to complicate any potential attack by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). For Taiwan, these systems promise not only new hardware, but a shift in how the island can sense, target and strike in a contested air and maritime environment.
The United States has approved a $1.1 billion arms sale to Taiwan covering ALTIUS-700M and ALTIUS-600 loitering munitions, aimed at reinforcing the island’s long-range strike and deterrence capabilities (Picture Source: Anduril)
At the core of the proposed sale are two complementary members of the ALTIUS family built around a common modular architecture but optimized for different missions. The ALTIUS-700M is the strike-oriented variant, designed as a heavy loitering munition capable of delivering a 33-pound (around 15 kg) anti-armor warhead. Housed in a 7-inch-diameter airframe, it offers an endurance of roughly 75 minutes and an effective range of about 160 km, enabling deep precision strikes against time-sensitive or high-value targets. The system is compatible with canister launch from land and maritime platforms, as well as from airborne assets, supporting flexible employment across joint and distributed operational concepts.
The ALTIUS-600 requested by Taiwan is primarily configured for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as signals intelligence and electronic warfare roles. Featuring a 6-inch fuselage, it can be equipped with a stabilized multi-sensor gimbal combining electro-optical, infrared and long-wave infrared sensors, providing day-and-night ISR capability. Depending on payload and flight profile, endurance can reach approximately three and a half hours, with ranges approaching 375 km, allowing persistent coverage well beyond the forward edge. Both variants integrate assured positioning, navigation and timing, resilient communications and full-motion video, and their shared modular design allows rapid tailoring from persistent reconnaissance to armed strike while simplifying integration and logistics.
The ALTIUS family has evolved over the past decade from experimental concepts into systems regularly used in U.S. military experimentation. Developed by Area-I and later acquired by Anduril Industries, the ALTIUS-600 has been repeatedly employed in U.S. Army air-launched effects trials, including Project Convergence, where it has been launched from platforms such as UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones to extend sensing and targeting ranges. While its use remains focused on testing and concept development rather than full operational fielding, the system has also demonstrated notable robustness, with the ALTIUS-600 flown by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into the eyewall of major hurricanes to collect atmospheric data in extreme conditions.
On the export side, Taiwan already secured a separate approval in June 2024 for up to 291 ALTIUS-600M-V loitering munition systems worth an estimated $300 million, with Anduril identified as the principal contractor, and in March 2025 the United Kingdom awarded a nearly £30 million contract to Anduril UK to supply ALTIUS-600M and ALTIUS-700M loitering munitions for transfer to Ukraine. Taiwan’s latest request therefore builds on an existing development and export track record, rather than introducing an unproven system.
From a tactical perspective, the combination of ALTIUS-700M and ALTIUS-600 gives Taiwan a scalable “sensor-to-shooter” chain that can be deployed from dispersed launch points and controlled by relatively small crews. The ALTIUS-600 ISR and electronic warfare variants can loiter at long range, map PLA movements, intercept or disrupt communications and provide precise coordinates, while the 700M acts as a high-lethality effector capable of engaging armored vehicles, artillery units, radar sites or key logistical nodes at standoff distances. The tube-launched architecture and autonomous navigation allow these systems to be hidden in urban areas, hardened sites or mobile launch trailers, reducing vulnerability to pre-emptive strikes and enabling tactics based on sudden massed salvos or swarming attacks.
By pairing endurance and range with a relatively low unit size, ALTIUS can saturate specific sectors of the battlespace, force the PLA to disperse high-value assets, and complicate the employment of large formations of ships, landing craft or armored columns approaching Taiwan’s coast. In a scenario where traditional air superiority is contested, these loitering munitions offer Taiwan an additional layer of long-range precision firepower that does not rely on manned aircraft entering dense air-defense envelopes.
Strategically, the proposed ALTIUS package fits neatly into Taipei’s asymmetric defense concept, which seeks to counter the PLA’s numerical advantage with distributed, survivable and relatively affordable systems. Long-range loitering munitions can be pre-positioned across the island, on offshore islets and potentially on naval platforms, providing a persistent threat to amphibious staging areas, beachheads and key choke points in the Taiwan Strait. Their ability to operate as part of a networked kill chain with other U.S.-supplied assets, such as HIMARS rocket artillery, M109A7 self-propelled howitzers, TOW and Javelin anti-tank missiles and existing coastal anti-ship capabilities, enhances Taiwan’s capacity to impose high costs on any large-scale force concentration or amphibious assault.
The sale signals continued U.S. commitment to provide not only traditional platforms but also advanced unmanned capabilities that mirror trends seen in Ukraine and the Middle East, where loitering munitions have become central to modern warfare. At the same time, Beijing is likely to view the ALTIUS package as another step in the militarization of the Taiwan issue, potentially prompting further PLA counter-measures such as investment in electronic warfare, counter-UAS defenses and hardened basing. The net effect is a deeper entrenchment of deterrence by denial around Taiwan, but also heightened technological competition in the unmanned domain in the wider Indo-Pacific.
The introduction of the ALTIUS-700M and ALTIUS-600 marks a pivotal shift in Taiwan’s approach to long-range targeting and strike operations, moving from isolated precision weapons to a more integrated, unmanned strike network. By investing in advanced loitering munitions capable of finding and engaging targets at extended ranges, Taipei signals its intent to contest every stage of a potential PLA campaign, from build-up to maneuver. For the United States, supporting this evolution aligns with efforts to equip partners with autonomous, resilient systems that deter aggression without requiring large deployments. For Beijing, the message is clear: each new arms package further complicates its strategic calculus across the Taiwan Strait.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.