Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) has pledged to form a military technology development unit to integrate research on the development of military and civilian defense technology, with the aim of boosting the nation’s asymmetrical warfare capabilities in the face of growing military threats from China.
Koo, who assumed office on May 20 as one of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Cabinet appointees, made the pledge during a media roundtable on Friday last week.
Koo, 65, the first civilian defense minister in more than a decade, listed several top priorities in his new role, including boosting the nation’s asymmetrical warfare capabilities, joint warfare capabilities and whole-of-society resilience, as well as continuing to reform the nation’s reserve forces.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
On enhancing asymmetrical warfare capabilities, which aims to counter the heavy weaponry of Chinese forces with smaller and more mobile equipment, Koo said his ministry would launch a new military unit similar to that of the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
The Taiwanese version, to be listed under the Ministry of National Defense’s Department of Integrated Assessment, would work as a platform to combine the resources and capabilities of the ministry’s top research unit — the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology — and other civilian-run defense technology companies, Koo said, pledging to personally supervise the new unit’s operations once it is formed.
Koo also said that unlike the US, Taiwan does not have a big budget to develop defense technology from scratch.
The new unit would instead focus on investing in relatively mature defense technologies, such as next-generation uncrewed aerial vehicles and uncrewed ships, to continue to maintain Taiwan’s current edge in terms of asymmetrical warfare in the defense of the Taiwan Strait, he said.
However, Koo did not give more details on the planned unit, including when it would be launched and exactly how much money it would have to spend.
Launched in 2015, the Pentagon’s DIU is staffed by civilians and active-duty and reserve military personnel. It is headquartered in Mountain View, California — in Silicon Valley — with offices in Austin, Boston, Chicago and the Pentagon.
The US DIU “strengthens national security by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and bolstering our allied and national security innovation bases,” its Web site says.
“DIU partners with organizations across the Department of Defense to rapidly prototype and field dual-use capabilities that solve operational challenges at speed and scale,” it says.
The defense ministry in 2016 said that it would create a “Taiwanese DARPA” in 2017, a reference to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
At the time, it said the proposed organization would be staffed by 20 project managers with doctorates in a defense technology-relevant field or who had experience in the industry, and that it would receive an annual budget of NT$300 million (US$9.26 million).
The unit was intended to facilitate closer military-academic collaboration and ensure that defense projects benefited from up-to-date knowledge, including Academia Sinica’s latest projects, it said at the time.
The project later floundered amid opposition from military officials and legislators who demanded that the defense ministry improve the integration of research-and-development capabilities in the government, academia and the armament production sector, rather than adding more bureaucracy.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
BOOST IN CONFIDENCE: The sale sends a clear message of support for Taiwan and dispels rumors that US President Donald Trump ‘sold out’ the nation, an expert said The US government on Thursday announced a possible sale to Taiwan of fighter jet parts, which was estimated to cost about US$330 million, in a move that an expert said “sends a clear message of support for Taiwan” amid fears that Washington might be wavering in its attitude toward Taipei. It was the first announcement of an arms sale to Taiwan since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. The proposed package includes non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, as well repair and return support for the F-16, C-130 and Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft,
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
RSS