Taiwan’s legislature approved up to NT$240 billion (US$7.56 billion) in drone spending over the next six years on Thursday, and in the same session voted down the NT$210 billion (US$6.6 billion) special budget President Lai Ching-te’s government had requested to build its drone fleet. The opposition-drafted Act on Strengthening Defense Autonomy and Developing the Unmanned Vehicles Industry passed 60 to 50 in the 113-seat Legislative Yuan.
The result is more money on paper than the Cabinet asked for, delivered in a form the defense ministry says it cannot work with. Instead of a dedicated multi-year fund, the act draws roughly NT$40 billion a year from the regular budget, under new legislative oversight, and hands part of the program to the economy ministry.
The goal itself is not in dispute in Taipei. The government wants roughly 210,000 new military drones by 2031, modeled on Ukraine’s drone war, to make a Chinese invasion harder and to build a drone industry that can supply democracies without touching Chinese factories.
Opposition Lawmakers Swapped Lai’s Budget for Their Own Act
The Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party used their legislative majority to pass the Act on Strengthening Defense Autonomy and Developing the Unmanned Vehicles Industry, 60 votes to 50, while voting down the Cabinet’s NT$210 billion (US$6.6 billion) special drone budget the same day.
The opposition parties wrote their objections into law, Focus Taiwan reported. The act caps spending at NT$40 billion a year in principle and allows increases with legislative approval. It creates a drone development committee staffed partly by experts the legislative caucuses recommend, requires that committee to meet every six months, and puts major procurements in front of lawmakers. General industry development goes to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, while the military buys through the Ministry of National Defense.
KMT legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin said the government “cannot simply come asking for money every time without any oversight,” according to the Taipei Times. Senior KMT lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao argued against buying in bulk at all: order a huge quantity at once and “it will quickly become out of date.”
The Defense Ministry Says the Money Comes With the Wrong Strings
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense wanted a dedicated six-year special budget it could spend on its own schedule. The new act draws the NT$240 billion from regular annual budgets instead, with a NT$40 billion yearly baseline the ministry says is too low.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo told lawmakers before the vote that the annual cap would keep Taiwan from building real drone combat power, and his ministry has already programmed NT$42.1 billion in drone spending for 2027, more than the act’s baseline in its first full year. After the vote, the ministry said it regretted the outcome and that the rejected plan rested on internal assessments and coordination with allied nations, Reuters reported.
President Lai had made a final push for the special budget a day earlier, calling it “an important step for Taiwan to demonstrate its determination for self-defence.” Premier Cho Jung-tai said the Cabinet will now weigh whether the act meets the nation’s defense needs. DPP legislator Fan Yun warned that the annual-budget route creates uncertainty for industry and defense alike, and she has a fresh example: the 2026 general budget cleared the legislature only this month, after record delays (the drone line items survived). Her party also objects that caucus-picked committee seats invite politicization and Chinese infiltration, and that reporting procurements to the legislature exposes military secrets.
Taiwan Wants 210,000 Drones Built Without Chinese Parts
The government’s plan calls for roughly 210,000 new military drones, aerial and undersea, built on a supply chain free of Chinese components. Taiwan’s military planners modeled the buildup on Ukraine’s drone war. China currently dominates global drone production by a wide margin.
Taiwanese planners have studied Ukraine and Iran closely, and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim summed up the timing to the Wall Street Journal: “Better late than never.” DroneXL has followed this shift since Taiwan began rebuilding its drone program around Ukraine’s lessons in 2024, and the fleet the government wants is the hardware half of the drone “hellscape” the Pentagon has said should be waiting in the strait.
The industrial half matters just as much. Taiwan has spent two years selling itself as the democratic alternative to China’s drone supply chain, courting Western buyers with drones built without Chinese parts. American partners are already on the island: three weeks ago, Shield AI handed Taiwan’s NCSIST sovereign control of AI drone pilots after training Taiwanese engineers to run the autonomy stack themselves.
DroneXL’s Take
Nobody in Taipei voted against drones on Thursday: both versions of this program agree Taiwan needs drones by the tens of thousands, built without Chinese parts. The fight was over who controls the checkbook, and the loser is every manufacturer trying to plan a production line.
The KMT’s best argument is real. Lai Shyh-bao is right that drones go stale: Ukraine cycles through airframe designs in months, and a warehouse full of this year’s models ages fast. Annual review of a fast-moving program is not a crazy idea.
But that argument cuts against stockpiling hardware, not against committing money. What a six-year special budget buys is not 210,000 drones on day one; it is the demand certainty that lets a Taiwanese manufacturer hire, tool up, and refuse Chinese components without betting the company on next year’s legislative session. My read is that the act’s authors understand this perfectly well, which is why the NT$240 billion headline number is bigger than the budget they killed. The number is the message. The annual chokepoint is the mechanism.
Watch the 2027 defense budget when it reaches the legislature. The ministry says it needs NT$42.1 billion for drones next year alone, and the act’s baseline is NT$40 billion. Whether the majority that wrote the cap votes through the first exception to it will show whether Thursday was industrial policy or opposition politics wearing its uniform.
Sources: Focus Taiwan, Taipei Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
