Taiwan's $6.5 billion unmanned-systems act stalls over a spending cap

American autonomy software already drives Taiwanese sea drones. The NT$210 billion that would buy the fleet is stuck in cross-party talks, and the opposition's fallback caps spending at NT$40 billion a year.

Defense Minister Wellington Koo called on the Legislative Yuan to pass the Cabinet's special act on unmanned systems procurement, which would authorize up to NT$210 billion (US$6.49 billion) over six years, Focus Taiwan reported on Monday. The Cabinet submitted the bill on June 18. It funds reconnaissance and attack drones, uncrewed surface vessels, small attack boats, ground and underwater systems, and the test facilities behind them.

The opposition-controlled legislature is weighing it against 13 rival proposals, per CNA. Lawmakers finished an initial review, broke after six hours of debate on July 27 without consensus, and pushed the contested clauses into cross-party negotiation, the South China Morning Post wrote. The Kuomintang version would spend NT$240 billion over six years out of the annual budget, capped at NT$40 billion a year. That ceiling would leave the program short and could squeeze MQ-9B procurement, Koo said.