TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's domestically developed Kestrel anti-armor rockets registered a hit rate of 99.8% in training, while testing on the Kestrel II is nearing completion. 

The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday said that 1,104 Kestrel rockets have been fired in training exercises conducted by the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Military Police, and Army, per Liberty Times. Except for two misfires, all rockets hit their targets.

As for the more advanced Kestrel II rocket, the ministry said to meet future battlefield demands, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology is developing improvements in four areas: indoor firing, predictive targeting, tandem-charge warheads, and weight reduction. The launcher’s weight has already been reduced from 7.6 kg to 5.1 kg, with plans to optimize it further to below 4 kg, with testing to be completed by the end of the year.

The Kestrel is designed to disable light tanks and armored vehicles by targeting their tracks and tires. 

It has an effective range of 400 meters and can penetrate up to 300 mm of rolled homogeneous armor. This is a significant improvement over the M72 LAW, which has a range of 200 m and 200 mm of penetration.

According to estimates by the NCSIST, the Kestrel II anti-armor rocket under development can penetrate over 500 mm of rolled homogeneous armor. This makes it a threat to heavy tanks.

Analysts have estimated that the Kestrel costs NT$100,000 (US$3,300) per rocket. It can be deployed as the less costly option in a “high-low mix” alongside the more expensive TOW 2B anti-tank missiles, which cost NT$6.2 million per missile.

This offers a cost-effective solution for Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare strategy.