Drone Special Ordinance: Ministry of Defense to Procure via 'Massive, Long-Term Orders and Iterative Innovation'

(CNA, Reporters Wu Shu-wei, Lai Yu-chen, Taipei, 18th) The Executive Yuan today passed the draft of the "Indigenous Defense Unmanned Vehicle Procurement Special Ordinance," which plans to procure three categories of equipment: coastal surveillance drones, coastal attack drones, and small suicide unmanned boats. Huang Wen-chi, Director of the Ministry of National Defense's Strategic Planning Department, stated that the procurement plan will adopt a method of massive quantities, long-term orders, and iterative innovation to meet operational needs.

The Executive Yuan passed the draft ordinance in the morning, allocating a special budget with an upper limit of NT$210 billion in accordance with Article 83, Paragraph 1 of the Budget Act. The timeframe is scheduled from August 1 of this year to December 31, 2031, to progressively acquire indigenous defense unmanned vehicles.

Huang Wen-chi stated at a press conference after the Executive Yuan meeting that the defense special ordinance passed by the Legislative Yuan in May only approved a military procurement budget of NT$780 billion, completely deleting funds for commissioned manufacturing, commercial purchases, and weapons and equipment jointly developed by Taiwan and the US.

Regarding the procurement scope included in this special ordinance, Huang explained that the small drones and unmanned boats will be entirely domestically produced and procured through open tender and multiple-award contracts. Any qualified manufacturer that meets the technical standards and has production capabilities can participate in building up indigenous defense capabilities and combat readiness, which is why it is planned as a separate special budget.

As for the procurement quantity, Huang stated that it is consistent with the numbers for small drones and unmanned boats in the previous "Strengthening Defense Resilience and Asymmetric Warfare Capabilities Procurement Special Ordinance" draft, which are 1,446 coastal surveillance drones, 208,200 coastal attack drones, and 1,320 suicide unmanned boats, respectively.

Huang pointed out that this procurement plan will adopt a method of massive quantities, long-term orders, and iterative innovation. The procured drones are all small drones of Category 2 and below, including four types of coastal attack drones: FPV, bomb-dropping, and short-range and long-range loitering munitions. The Navy and Army now have specialized drone units, and the procurement is for their basic operational needs, which also includes the 1,446 coastal surveillance drones.

Huang mentioned that in addition to the special budget, starting from the third year, procurement will be funded through the operations and maintenance budget based on attrition rates to meet overall operational needs. The plan for suicide unmanned boats is the same. Therefore, this special ordinance is to meet the basic operational needs of professional units.

Regarding the exclusion of anti-drone systems from this special ordinance, Huang stated that the previous NT$1.25 trillion defense special ordinance draft had two parts for anti-drone system procurement. The first was a soft-kill/hard-kill hybrid system for countering large unmanned vehicles, which will still be executed under the planned military procurement case. The other part was the hundreds of sets of portable drone jamming systems originally planned for purchase.

Huang explained that the portable drone jamming systems are closely related to the establishment of the small drone systems procured under this special ordinance. The reason for Ukraine's rapid growth in the Russo-Ukrainian War is the combined use of anti-drone and drone systems, continuously accumulating experience and iterating, allowing for mutual growth in offense and defense to rapidly acquire capabilities. Therefore, the portable anti-drone systems will be procured through a supplementary budget or included in the Ministry of National Defense's annual budget for 2027. (Editor: Su Chih-tsung) 1150618