Taiwan proposes $6.6B plan to buy drones made at home

In short: Taiwan has proposed a $6.6 billion budget to buy large numbers of drones made in Taiwan, and that spending could also help local drone makers sell more overseas.

What happened

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has proposed a special budget to spend about $6.6 billion over six years on drones made in Taiwan. The plan would run from 2026 to 2031.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the proposal would fund more than 208,000 coastal attack drones, more than 1,400 coastal reconnaissance drones (used for scouting), and 1,320 uncrewed surface vessels (small boats with no crew). It would be a major increase compared with reports that Taiwan currently has around 5,000 attack drones made in the US and at home.

Taiwan’s drone industry is also trying to sell more to the US military and to Europe. For example, Taiwanese firm Thunder Tiger has qualified a small drone for a US Defense Department approved list, and it has set up a facility in Ohio to make drone motors. Taiwan’s government says the island exported $115 million in fully assembled drones in early 2026, more than the total for all of 2025.

Why it matters

This is partly about defense, but it is also about supply. Many countries want options besides drones made in China, and Taiwan is positioning itself as another supplier. The challenge is cost and scale, since China’s DJI dominates the commercial drone market and often sells at much lower prices.

Source: Arstechnica