A joint meeting of three legislative committees last month reviewed 14 versions of draft bills for the procurement of defense drones. With the exception of one proposal, which was rescheduled for further review, the rest were referred to cross-party negotiations. There is still no consensus on the bill’s title or legislative purpose, the competent authority, procurement items, spending cap or implementation period. While the proposed budgets of NT$210 billion and NT$240 billion (US$6.5 billion and US$7.4 billion) are clearly outlined, the operational missions the systems would perform remain vague.
Under the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill, the Ministry of National Defense would serve as the competent authority and use a special budget of NT$210 billion to procure coastal reconnaissance drones, coastal attack drones and uncrewed surface vessels. The version proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would instead place responsibility in the hands of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, allocating NT$240 billion over six years, with annual spending capped at NT$40 billion, to cover manufacturing, maintenance, training, testing facilities and industrial clusters. The difference between the two versions is not merely NT$30 billion in funding, but rather that defense procurement and industrial development have been incorporated into the same negotiation process.
The industry needs long-term orders, and the military needs mass production and rapid iteration — this is the strongest argument in support of the NT$240 billion proposal. Long-term orders can amplify existing demand, but they cannot replace demand itself. If the Ministry of National Defense does not first determine — based on its intelligence gathering and military development plans — the missions each type of vehicle should perform, the legislature would be earmarking an annual budget of NT$40 billion with no clear projects on hand.
Including procurement, research and development subsidies, testing facilities and support for small and medium-sized enterprises into a single piece of legislation would render oversight ineffective. Once the budget is spent, it would become difficult to determine whether increased spending has translated into actual military capacity or merely production capacity. If the needs of the military change, a fixed overall budget could lead to procurements that do not align with operational missions. Similarly, if industry requires long-term support, that support should not be allowed to bypass regular budget review under the guise of military urgency.
Negotiations must first distinguish between two different legislative objectives. Defense procurement should be initiated by the defense ministry based on missions, quantities, timelines and maintenance costs, while industrial development should be separately guided by the technology, supply chain and market objectives outlined by the economics ministry. While the two can be coordinated, their governing authorities, budget accounts and performance evaluations must remain separate.
That all 14 versions of the draft bill remain on the table shows that negotiations have yet to establish even the most basic legislative order. If the parties merely compromise on the amount of funding and then force the contents of each draft version into a single piece of legislation, that would be tantamount to writing a check with the total amount filled in first and a yet-to-be-determined purpose.
Uncrewed systems must be aligned with the threat environment, and a NT$240 billion budget must first align with operational missions.
Steve Ho is a retired engineer.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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