Notes from Central Taiwan: Localize Taiwan’s drone capabilities

Training civilians and expanding practical drone programs nationwide could strengthen disaster response — and build resilience for a wartime emergency

• By Michael Turton / Contributing reporter

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Drones are widely recognized as a critical weapons technology of the future. Because of this, the pro-China Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) appear to be obstructing their development. One approach to handling this obstruction is to circumvent it by building robust drone capabilities across a wide swathe of the population. Taiwan is doing just that, but more is needed.

The Penghu County Government on Monday said it was testing flying drones on routes from Magong City (馬公), the county seat, to Jibei Island (吉貝嶼). Because all of the inhabited islands lie within 40km of Magong, drones can easily reach them. The drone program, which may include uncrewed sea vessels, is aimed at offering Penghu residents daily necessities. Whether intentional or not, the program mimics the use of drones to provision front line troops and residents in occupied areas, a key function of drones.

Similarly, the Taipei Times reported this week that healthcare providers on the east coast are building a delivery network for medical goods using drones. Authorities held a live demonstration of a medical drone flight designed to service remote mountain communities. Drones for both routine delivery of medicines and emergency treatments are being studied. The program was inspired in part by the situation after the April 2024 earthquake in Hualien, which saw many mountain communities cut off from medical services.

A damaged building caused by an earthquake in Hualien on April 4, 2024. The quake inspired officials to use drones to deliver emergency supplies to remote communities.

Photo: AFP

Torrential rains, typhoons and earthquakes can easily cut off services to remote communities and offshore islands. In wartime islands are likely to be without transportation as ferries and aircraft are mobilized for wartime service, and roads to remote communities blocked. It is easy to see how an existing integrated drone-based medical delivery system could be repurposed for wartime use.

Tainan city and the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCIST) in December last year participated in a demonstration of drones in disaster response. The wartime applications of such a system are obvious.

Taiwan Water Corp is already using drones to monitor water quality. It presently operates 11 drones and plans to acquire 10 more by the year’s end. It also uses an unmanned boat to monitor water quality in an artificial lake in Nantou County. Since water facilities will surely be targeted in a Chinese invasion scenario, these are key technology capabilities.

A bomb-dropping drone is displayed at the headquarters of Thunder Tiger Group in Taichung on April 21.

Photo: AFP

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), long at the forefront of technology development, has supported a range of civilian drone applications with obvious wartime uses. For example, it developed a drone-based inspection system for assessing damage to bridges and other structures for the high speed rail. It has also developed an automated drone-surveillance system for police use. Both of these have clear wartime applications.

Though at present these systems are technology demonstrations, the existence of local and government agency drone initiatives suggests how the antics of the pro-China parties in the legislature can be circumvented: encourage local governments to develop local drone initiatives that move beyond technology demonstration to actual implementation across a wide range of activities that will be useful in an invasion scenario. The purpose of such programs is to build drone-based capabilities for use in wartime and create robust expertise in drone use at the local level. For areas controlled by pro-Taiwan politicians from the pan-Green parties, this should be considered mandatory.

Such programs could include search and rescue operations, emergency response and border surveillance. Recall that “borders” in Taiwan are watery and have already been penetrated by operatives of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using small craft. Drone patrols by local governments would be an ideal response, especially if they are rhetorically positioned as safety patrols. Drone-based monitoring of cables, bridges, roads, dikes, wells and other vital infrastructure should be widely implemented across the country.

Officers from Hsinchu County’s Hengshan Township Police Station on July 24 learn how to use drones for surveillance.

Photo courtesy of the Hengshan Police Station

Medical deliveries and provisioning of daily necessities should be extended across all the nation’s remote areas and all of its associated islands. In wartime, the skills used to deliver to remote areas and islands will come in handy delivering to friendly areas surrounded by enemy-occupied areas, which will functionally be “islands” and “remote areas.” Even programs that track and map vegetation, wildlife and agriculture would be useful in wartime. Taiwan is already thinking about or implementing some of these programs, but local governments need to start aggressively funding and expanding them.

Note that many of these programs could be implemented on a volunteer basis using Taiwan’s plentiful pool of senior volunteers. Numerous private organizations already offer drone training, as do higher education institutions, since operating drones weighing 2kg or more requires a license. Even schools are now offering summer programs. Local governments should be pushing harder to fund and expand these organizations.

Taiwan wants to turn out 100,000 drones a month by the end of the decade. Wartime assaults will involve tens of thousands of drones on both sides. Ukraine has 80,000 personnel involved in its drone programs, with an estimated 25-40,000 pilots. By contrast, even the well-known Kuma Academy’s introductory course only has capacity for 75 civilian trainees per month, roughly 900 people a year, according to a recent Guardian article.

Taiwan’s civilian drone programs are thus woefully undersupported and underproductive, the more so when the inevitable losses due to combat and psychological trauma in an invasion are considered. They are also out of sync with Taiwan’s potential drone output, even if a large chunk of that is exported as the government plans. Demand for drone operators is going to massively outstrip supply. Taiwan does not have the luxury of trading space for time to implement drone operator training as Ukraine does. It has to enter the war with a large pool of drone operators already well-trained and experienced.

Another reason to get local governments to operate robust drone programs is decentralization. In a Taiwan invasion scenario central government control is going to be spotty and focused on making sure the military responds, especially early in the invasion. The more local governments can cultivate civil defense capabilities, the better off Taiwan will be, and the more Taipei can focus on the national situation. Moreover, independent drone capabilities integrated with local government agencies and officials will also be useful if local governments are cut off from Taipei.

Finally, massively expanding local government and government agency drone operations will force the pro-China parties in the legislature to face the politically unpalatable choices of either attempting to suppress local drone training programs — affecting local voters and displaying their pro-China positions for all to see — or letting drone programs flourish and angering their friends across the Strait. It will also be good for Taiwan and the pro-Taiwan parties to get more locals engaged with drones and civil defense.

If local drone production ramps up, drone pilot production must follow. Local governments need to vastly expand their investment in local drone training and applications. Time may be running out.

Notes from Central Taiwan is a column written by long-term resident Michael Turton, who provides incisive commentary informed by three decades of living in and writing about his adoptive country. The views expressed here are his own.