Taiwan seeks to emulate Ukraine with national drone strategy

TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan is ramping up its drone production to enhance national defense, facing challenges from the reliance on inexpensive Chinese-made drones and supply chain constraints, as the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday (June 23). The country is looking to emulate Ukraine's defense strategies, including forming partnerships with private firms to establish a "national drone team."

The Ministry of National Defense in Taiwan (MND, 國防部) plans to invest approximately US$175 million (NT$5.6 billion) over five years to procure around 3,200 drones from private vendors. This initiative mirrors Ukraine's deployment of about 10,000 drones monthly, according to data from the UK's Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Eric Gomez, a scholar at the Cato Institute in Washington, emphasized the urgency of stockpiling and securing these drones to prevent potential conflict interference. Taiwan must avoid reliance on DJI (大疆創新), the Chinese drone giant, due to the risk of cybersecurity threats that could benefit the People's Liberation Army.

As an island, Taiwan's drone supply chain is particularly vulnerable to disruptions, necessitating alternative sourcing strategies beyond the dominant Chinese market. Drone Industry Insights (Droneii) notes that DJI holds a three-quarters share of the global commercial drone market.

Chen Kuan-ju (陳冠如), chairman of Thunder Tiger Corporation (雷虎科技), mentioned that while the gimbal system is crucial, high domestic labor costs force most assembly to occur in China. Jonson Huang (黃重生), founder of Taiwan UAV (智飛科技), experimented with replacing Chinese engines with Australian ones in military drones but found costs prohibitively expensive, being twenty times higher.

The U.S. State Department has approved a US$360 million arms sale to Taiwan, which includes about 1,000 drone systems like the Switchblade. Meanwhile, Taiwan is also developing anti-drone measures, demonstrated in 2022 when soldiers on Kinmen (金門) island downed a Chinese drone over a military base using stones, underscoring the necessity for such defenses.

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