Taiwan’s Apache and Black Hawk Drill Shows How Drone Warfare Is Reshaping Helicopter Operations

During Taiwan’s 10-day Han Kuang exercise, the 601st Air Cavalry Brigade refueled three helicopters by a lake in Taoyuan while counter-drone ground teams watched the skies. The aircraft included an AH-64E Apache Guardian, a UH-60M Black Hawk, and an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior. Troops with 5.56mm assault rifles and anti-drone guns covered the helicopters as they arrived at a forward arming and refueling point, or FARP.

FARPs are temporary, mobile field sites where ground crews quickly replenish helicopters with fuel and ammunition near the front lines. In the Taiwan drill, the helicopters sat for about 15 minutes with rotors still spinning while crews connected them to a collapsible fuel bladder and rearmed the Kiowa Warrior with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The article frames that window as especially dangerous because helicopters are slow, exposed, and easier for small drones to target while landing, refueling, or taking off.

Business Insider reports that Ukraine’s war has shown how small quadcopters and reconnaissance drones can threaten helicopters and ground crews at forward refueling sites. Kyiv’s troops have recorded instances of drone pilots striking Russian helicopters while they were refueling or taking off, and reconnaissance drones can cue missile or artillery attacks. Taiwan’s use of anti-drone teams during the drill signals that its military is applying those battlefield lessons to helicopter operations.

The anti-drone jamming gun seen at the exercise was developed locally by Taiwan’s state-affiliated National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. Chung Chieh, a veteran Taiwanese analyst at the government-backed Institute of National Defense and Security Research, told Business Insider that Taiwan now rarely conducts missions using large helicopter formations and instead disperses and conceals helicopters. He also warned that frontline units have “only short-range jammer guns during combat” and said Taiwan still lacks effective mobile, field-deployable counter-drone weapon systems.