Taiwan’s Endeavor Manta Drone Boat Breaks Cover

Taiwan has revealed a new drone boat, or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), the Endeavor Manta. Somewhat surprisingly, this is said to be the first of its kind to have been developed for the Republic of China Navy (ROCN). While global interest in this class of vessels has been growing fast recently, especially in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Endeavor Manta has been tailored specifically to help defend Taiwan against a possible Chinese invasion.

The existence of the Endeavor Manta was disclosed today by Taiwan’s China Shipbuilding Corporation (CSBC Corp.), which produces ships and submarines for military and civilian use, during a launch event held in the port of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The event included a demonstration of the USV’s at-sea capabilities and TWZ has reached out to the company for more information.

Suffice it to say, published specifications of the relatively small USV include a length of 8.6 meters (28.2 feet), a width of 3.7 meters (12.1 feet), and a displacement of over five tons, fully loaded. Featuring a fiber-reinforced plastic hull, the Endeavor Manta has a payload capacity of more than one ton and a top speed of over 35 knots, powered by two outboard engines.

The USV, at least in its current form, has a crew position at the base of the ‘sail.’ It’s unclear if the crew cockpit is intended just for test work, or whether future versions of the Endeavor Manta may also be at least optionally crewed, which would seem less likely.

According to reports, the USV is equipped with various different communication systems to allow it to keep in contact with a control center. These include 4G, line-of-sight radios, and beyond line-of-sight satellite link. Should all of these break down, such as via signal disruption or jamming, there exists the possibility for the Endeavor Manta to return to its base autonomously.

The Endeavor Manta is said to be capable of being operated in swarms and also has an autonomous navigation function with collision avoidance. Other autonomous features reportedly include AI target recognition and undisclosed “anti-hijacking functions.” The latter apparently refers to a self-destruction system, should the USV fall into the hands of enemy forces.

According to local media reports, the development of the Endeavor Manta began last year and was inspired by Ukraine’s use of USVs to attack Russian naval ships and other targets during its conflict with Russia.

A video showing a Ukrainian USV attacking the Russian Project 22160 patrol ship Sergei Kotov in the Kerch Strait in March 2024:

However, the Endeavor Manta is said to have been designed specifically for operations in the Taiwan Strait. This environment is likely to have prompted the choice of a trimaran hull, which is generally better able to cope with challenging sea states of the kind that are frequently encountered here.

Overall, the stealthy shape was likely chosen to reduce the USV’s signature, making it harder for adversaries to detect it.

In an attack role, it’s envisaged that the Endeavor Manta would carry an undisclosed number of “light torpedoes,” to engage enemy ships. After expending its torpedo armament, it would then be able to target other vessels — or conduct follow-up attacks — by ramming them, making use of a warhead mounted in the bow. The size of the USV means that any torpedoes would likely have to be carried externally.

According to CSBC Corp., up to 50 of these USVs can be controlled from a single control station, and the Endeavor Manta can also be integrated into operations with other types of drones and satellite-based targeting systems.

Since it’s fairly small, the Endeavor Manta could be launched from even the smallest ports in Taiwan or even put into the water from beaches and coves — including on outlying islands in the Strait. It could be transported fairly easily on the back of a truck and then deployed when and where required, conferring a good degree of surprise and making it harder for the enemy to detect. The USV can also be deployed from crewed ships, one example being the Yushan class landing platform dock, each of which would be able to carry more than 20 of these craft.

The Endeavor Manta is designed to be relatively inexpensive to produce, and it relies primarily on Taiwanese-made components. Only the satellite guidance system and outboard engines are sourced from foreign suppliers.

Based on development timelines, CSBC Corp. has said that it’s not putting the Endeavor Manta into an upcoming USV competition that will be run by Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), a state research and development agency broadly similar to the Pentagon’s DARPA but with its own production capability.

However, the company remains confident that the ROCN — as well as civilian agencies — will still be interested in acquiring the Endeavor Manta.

Overall, while a USV may be new for Taiwan, the idea of using drones — including the planned use of swarming — to counter Chinese numerical superiority in the Strait is by no means a novelty.

Above all, Taiwan has been building up its capacity to deploy large numbers of relatively cheap drones. These are intended to give Taiwan extremely valuable additional capacity to attack Chinese forces during any future conflict across the Taiwan Strait.

Until now, the focus has mainly been on aerial drones, specifically loitering munitions. Last year, the U.S. government approved the potential sale of over a thousand loitering munitions to Taiwan, including Switchblade 300 and ALTIUS 600M types, both of which have been used in combat in Ukraine. Taiwan has also been developing its own loitering munition designs locally.

A 2023 video below from Taiwan’s NCSIST that shows various domestic drone developments, including the Chien Hsiang loitering munition:

Key targets for aerial drones and USVs like the Endeavor Manta would include People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships in the Taiwan Strait, especially incoming Chinese landing craft.

At the same time, Taiwanese forces would make use of a wide range of other weapons, including various types of anti-ship missiles and even anti-tank guided missiles, the latter being used against enemy landing craft in coastal defense scenarios. While we don’t know the range of the Endeavor Manta, USVs like this would theoretically enable PLAN vessels to be attacked at significantly greater ranges.

As well as kinetic attacks, with torpedoes or in kamikaze fashion, the Endeavor Manta could also be used for surveillance and reconnaissance. In this role, they could operate independently or network together in swarms, which could also help find targets and improve overall situational awareness.

Ultimately, the Endeavor Manta could emerge as an important facet within the emerging strategy nicknamed Hellscape — a Pentagon initiative to work out how best to leverage large volumes of uncrewed capabilities in the defense of Taiwan.

In recent years, U.S. and Taiwanese officials have warned that China could feel confident in its ability to launch a successful armed intervention against Taiwan by 2027, if not earlier.

Such a confrontation would likely also quickly become a huge drone war, with China also having made its own substantial investments in loitering munitions and swarming technologies in recent years. Chinese drones are proliferating in the air, on the ground, and at sea, and everything points to the mass use of uncrewed systems being a deciding factor in a conflict between Taiwan and China, something that has been enforced by the lessons of influential war games.

This reality makes it all the more surprising that it has taken Taiwan relatively so long to develop drone boats. Based on the type of threat, it might have been expected that the ROCN would already possess significant quantities of USVs, of different kinds, to enhance its asymmetric warfare capabilities, which it otherwise invests heavily in.

Overall, the Endeavor Manta is the latest addition to a growing fleet of USVs around the globe. Provided it’s not too late to the game, it’s also one that could, in the future, become an important part of Taiwan’s swarms of relatively cheap networked drones — something that would be expected to play a key role in any confrontation with China.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com