TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Ministry of National Defense said Friday (Sept. 2) it had moved anti-drone guns to the offshore islands of Kinmen and Matsu following several incidents with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) believed to have flown in from China.

Civilian drones have been spotted above Taiwan-held islands close to the coast of China’s Fujian Province for several days, with one of them shot down over the sea in Kinmen County on Thursday (Sept. 1) after it failed to heed warnings. The appearance of the UAVs is seen as yet another sign of China’s provocative behavior, in addition to recent large-scale military maneuvers and the almost daily incursions of Chinese warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

On Friday, soldiers stationed on Kinmen County’s Lieyu Islet, 10 kilometers from the Chinese coast, fired flares, multiple times, to chase away civilian-operated Chinese UAVs, CNA reported.

The military said it was advocating a flexible response in the wake of the drone incursions, adding it had equipped soldiers on the islands with anti-drone weapons. The guns jam the frequency used by the ground station to communicate with the drone, resulting in the UAV spinning out of control and crashing.