A Taiwanese airline is offering surveillance flights to help monitor Chinese military activity, in a bid to join Taipei's “whole-of-society” initiative.

Taipei City

Apex Aviation, a Taiwan-based company known for pilot training and charter flights, is proposing to provide surveillance flights for the government using aircraft equipped with U.S.-made radar systems. The initiative, called Project Goshawk, aims to help Taiwan's military track and verify Chinese warships near its coast, offering early warnings to enable timely responses.

This proposal comes as Taiwan encourages greater civilian participation in national security amid increasing Chinese military activity. While the defense ministry currently has no plans to cooperate with civilian operators, it remains open to new ideas. Experts note that legal frameworks would be needed to allow private aircraft to conduct reconnaissance operations.

Taiwan airline pitches surveillance flights to counter China

Equipped with a powerful U.S.-made radar under its belly, this light aircraft is flying over Taiwan's east coast. The radar tracks Chinese warships, collecting data its operator is keen to provide to Taipei's military. Apex Aviation, better known for pilot training and charter flights, is pitching surveillance flights to the government. Retired Taiwan Navy officer and Apex reconnaissance consultant Zhou Wang describes what the company calls Project Goshawk. We can not only assist the National Army in making target verification in the air, but also provide target verification on the sea surface. This way, we can initially tell them that at what latitude and longitude of 24 nautical miles away, or at a certain location in the eastern seas, for example, a Luoyang-3-class destroyer is appearing now. This way, they have time to respond. Assuming the ship moves within the 24-miles sea line, the National Army will have time to respond. We only need to do an early warning action, so that our National Army, our government units can give an early response. This is why this equipment is so important for Goshawk. Under its, quote, whole-of-society resilience initiative, Taiwan's government has invited businesses, research groups, and other organizations to take on more active roles in national security. That includes backing up communications and logistics, shoring up cyber defenses, and potentially contributing to surveillance and intelligence gathering. While common in countries such as the United States, this joint military-civilian approach is new for Taiwan. In light of daily Chinese incursions into its skies and waters, Taipei has said it aims to boost defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2030, and will introduce a 40 billion supplementary budget to fund arms purchases. APEX is seeking a role in that buildup. Wilson Cao is the company chairman. We have no time to waste on research and development. Our own integration of different sensor systems is already research and development. If I still go around trying to incorporate some unproven sensors, wouldn't it be like playing a prank on myself? Also, because we continue to pay attention to the situation in the Taiwan Strait, and all these military exercises are becoming more and more frequent, and the distance is getting closer and closer, won't there be a sense of urgency? That's why we feel that if we don't jump in now, we may not even have this opportunity in the future. However, experts said authorities must establish a legal basis to allow civilian aircraft to engage in reconnaissance. Su Tzu-yun is a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research. If the government maintains a patrol fleet, and cooperates with the private sector, this is a different cost consideration. But we must return to whether the government's power should be handed off like that, because after all, patrol aircraft involve the use of enforcement, and whether enforcement can be handed off to the private sector is a matter of legal debate. Taiwan's defense ministry told Reuters that it is able to effectively monitor Chinese activities and currently has no plans for cooperation with civilian operators. But it said it was open to new ideas.

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