Tainan (Taiwan) (AFP) - Silver-hulled marine drones break the surface of the water at a Taiwan exhibition, where local and foreign companies compete for a share of the growing government investment in the drones that the island is betting on to deter China.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 11:45

As Chinese military pressure mounts, Taiwan is pouring billions of dollars into air and sea drones, which have been used extensively and with devastating effect in the war Russia is waging against Ukraine and in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Taiwanese army announced that it seeks to purchase more than 1,400 coastal surveillance and reconnaissance drones, more than 200,000 coastal attack drones, as well as 1,320 surface naval drones designed to attack their targets on non-return trips.

Despite political disagreements over the amount of spending on Taiwan's security, Parliament recently passed a law allocating 240 billion Taiwanese dollars (7.4 billion US dollars) to drones for defensive purposes, and it is expected to approve additional spending this month.

At a yacht resort in the city of Tainan in the south of the island, manufacturers from Taiwan, the United States and Singapore presented, on Monday, to Taiwanese government officials and other officials, marine drones, some that work on the surface and some that work underwater.

Surface drones, several meters long and capable of carrying explosive charges, disturbed the calm waters of the marina as they demonstrated their speed and maneuverability. In the depths, drones designed to inspect the sea floor were diving.

Taiwan is in the lead

Taiwan has "the largest program in the world right now to purchase maritime surface drones... so all these companies are coming here," policy analyst at the government-backed Institute for Research on Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, Cathy Fang, told AFP on the sidelines of the show.

The island aspires to become the “Asian center” for producing drones free of Chinese components, benefiting from its leadership in artificial intelligence and semiconductor manufacturing technologies.

Taiwan has the necessary experience to design advanced autonomous naval vessels, but it seeks to cooperate with foreign companies whose systems have proven their effectiveness in combat and use more efficient software.

As part of a recent agreement, Maritime Tactical Systems, based in the US state of Florida, announced that the Taiwanese Coast Guard will purchase 25 of its maritime surface drones, to be manufactured in the United States and Taiwan.

“Having a large number of small surface drones capable of performing a variety of tasks greatly reduces the burden on the Coast Guard and Navy,” Seamus Flatley, an official at the company, told AFP in Tainan.

The cost of a single marine drone, depending on the model, ranges between a few thousand and several million US dollars, and it takes a few weeks or months to manufacture. It remains much less expensive and faster to manufacture than building a warship or submarine.

"Change the equation"

Bryce Barros of the Global Taiwan Institute says that these relatively low-cost drones could “change the equation” in the event of a conflict with China.

He added, "The use of surface and underwater maritime drones is extremely important, as it undoubtedly complicates Chinese military operations as well as Beijing's strategic calculations."

Su Tzu-yun of the Taipei-based National Defense and Security Research Institute believes that these marches may "compensate for the labor shortage in Taiwan caused by the decline in the birth rate."

Although surface drones have received the most attention, global interest in unmanned submarines has increased significantly since the outbreak of conflict in the Middle East and Iran's announcement of its control of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Grace Chia, CEO of the Singaporean company BX, which specializes in autonomous underwater vehicles.

"We noticed a significant increase in demand, as people began to realize that a single mine could close an entire seaway," Chia told AFP. "This is precisely where underwater robots come in to neutralize these threats."

However, analysts stress the challenges facing Taiwan, including integrating different types of drones into its armed forces and ensuring the ability of its various systems to work together, as well as carrying out operations without the use of Elon Musk’s “Starlink” satellites, which are not available to Taiwan.

“Satellite communications are essential for surface drones,” Barros says.

He added, "But this actually depends on the scope of the operations. The importance of these communications is less in operations that are carried out very close to the coast of Taiwan, within its territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles."

© 2026 AFP

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