TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Army reported 22 accidents with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in one year, exposing a shortage of qualified staff, reports said Saturday (Nov. 2).
Most of the incidents between April 2023 and the end of May 2024 occurred due to careless handling by drone operators, per the Liberty Times. The information was revealed in budget documents submitted to the Legislative Yuan.
The Army had ordered 301 close-range tactical rotary-wing “Capricorn” drones from the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST). However, there has been a shortage of personnel trained to operate the helicopter-like UAVs.
The fact that careless handling of the drones was mentioned as the most frequent cause for the accidents showed that training needed to be improved, the report said. Other problems affected the switching of the engines, the setting of the altitude, and flight controls.
An estimated 25% of Army UAV team members had not acquired a drone operating license yet, with half of them belonging to the management level. In addition, some of the license holders had not completed the required minimum hours of training.
By the end of June, the Army counted 81 licensed UAV operators, or 88.04% of the staff level the military was aiming for.