Taiwan defense officials urge support for unmanned vehicle procurement act

Negotiations regarding the Executive Yuan's draft of the Special Act for the Procurement of Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles have stalled in Taiwan's Legislative Yuan due to a lack of consensus between political parties. The Ministry of National Defense expressed regret over the delay, emphasizing that the special legislation is designed to provide a stable and certain budget scale to encourage private sector investment and build a domestic, non-red supply chain.

Defense officials noted that modern warfare has become a high-consumption battle of unmanned systems, as seen in recent global conflicts. To address the rapid pace of technological advancement, the Ministry plans to implement a procurement strategy of one tender per year. This approach allows the military to update technical specifications annually, ensuring that the armed forces can continuously acquire the latest technology through iterative upgrades.

Separately, the Ministry addressed an issue involving an Army procurement project where a vendor was found using unauthorized components of Chinese origin. Officials stated that once the non-compliant parts were discovered during the inspection process, payments were withheld, the contract was terminated, and the matter was referred to judicial authorities for investigation.