THE US is sending $1.1billion of arms to help Taiwan defend itself against China – including advanced missiles to shoot down drones, reports say.
It comes as Taiwan said today it had downed a spy drone for the first time following a series of incursions by Beijing's unmanned planes.
Island defenders are on high alert after a full-scale invasion rehearsal last month, and have vowed a "counter attack" against any ships and planes entering its waters and air space.
Recent weeks have seen a surge in drones flying over military bases on Taiwanese-controlled islands near the Chinese mainland.
Today the defence ministry said troops had shot down "an unknown civilian aerial camera" flying over the restricted waters of Shiyu Island.
Four other drones were forced to turn back by live fire warning shots in the past two days, it added.
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Taiwan has previously indicated it has domestically produced anti-drone defences deployed across its territory.
But now it is set to get a further boost with a shipment of highly mobile Vampire rocket launchers from the US.
They are likely to be part of a new $1.1billion arms shipment to counter the growing threat of invasion, reports The Times.
The same Vampire system is already being supplied to Ukraine to take on Russian and Iranian-made drones carrying weapons and surveillance gear.
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Vampire – which stands for Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletised ISR Rocket Equipment – can be mounted on a pickup truck or flatbed lorry in just two hours, the manufacturer says.
And it can be operated by just one soldier sitting in the cab – with a "sensor ball" on a telescopic pole to track drones and a four-pod "suitcase" launcher firing laser-guided missiles.
The system was ordered by the Pentagon in response to ISIS using adapted commercial drones to drop grenades and spy on positions in Syria.
But it can also be used against larger military unmanned vehicles made by Russia and Iran, analysts say.
It should be delivered early next year, according to maker L3Harris.
China has been accused of conducting "grey zone warfare" amid growing fears of all-out conflict that could suck in the US and other allies.
It has been using commercial camera drones to fly over Taiwan's military sites while claiming no hostile intent.
Videos circulating on social media show soldiers hurling rocks to drive drones away.
Repeated incursions by Chinese jets and ships have also continued since the huge war drills blockaded Taiwan last month.
A record 446 warplanes entered Taiwan's air defence zone in August, more than the 380 sorties by Chinese jets over the whole of 2020.
Yesterday a defence official vowed to use "strong countermeasures", including live fire for the first time.
Invasion alert
Major General Lin Wen-huang said: "We will use naval and air forces and coastal fire to repel PLA forces that enter our 24-nautical-mile or 12-nautical-mile zones.
"When the PLA aircraft and ships are in our 12-nautical-mile territorial sea and air space, we will act in accordance with operational orders to exercise the right of self-defence to counter-attack."
And on the drone threat, he added the military "will determine whether to engage the target and exercise the right of self-defence to counter-attack".
Some analysts feared opening fire on a Chinese drone could provoke an aggressive response.
Beijing has not commented on the downing of a UAV today, but has previously played down incursions around the Kinmen islands.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said they were not "anything worth making a fuss about" as the drones were "flying around Chinese territory".
Some 23million Taiwanese people are living in fear of imminent invasion after tensions reached the highest in decades.
China claims the island nation as its own and has said it will use force if necessary to take it.
Taiwan is massively outgunned, with just 88,000 ground forces compared to China's one million troops, according to Pentagon estimates.
Today microchip tycoon Robert Tsao, 75, vowed to use his fortune to train some three million "civilian warriors" and 300,000 sharpshooters to fight off an invasion.
He said: "The Chinese Communist Party's threat to Taiwan is growing and the fight against (it) stands for freedom against slavery, democracy against authoritarianism and civilised against barbaric."
In the event of an invasion, Beijing could use a terrifying swarm of high-tech attack drones, experts fear.
The drones would combine with ships, planes and a million troops in an air and sea assault across the 110-mile Strait.
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China reportedly has supersonic drones for spying and larger drones designed to take down American warships, and is developing drones designed to hunt soldiers in packs.
Last month Beijing threatened to open "reeducation camps" for Taiwan's population in a chilling echo of the Uighur genocide.
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