Taiwan’s legislature approved a plan to spend more than $7 billion on drones over the next six years, part of the island’s push to deter a potential attack from China.
President Lai Ching-te’s administration views drones as critical to Taiwan’s “porcupine strategy” — asymmetric warfare using small, agile, and cheap defense systems to inflict pain on larger aggressors.
Taiwan’s drone manufacturing has largely been scaled for export, but the new budget — although watered down — could boost domestic demand for drones and strengthen local supply chains, allowing the sector to mass produce drones even under bombardment.
Taiwan’s vice president noted the island was inspired by how Ukraine had built up its drone capabilities from the “battlefield of blood and tears.”