The Ukraine Lesson Taiwan Keeps Missing

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Ukraine, for instance, has developed Sky Fortress, a network of 14,000 acoustic sensors that locate Russian drones by sound, even at altitudes radar cannot see, to provide a high-fidelity picture of incoming threats. It also has its own battle-management software systems that direct unmanned surveillance, as well as the Unmanned Services Force, an entirely new military service—alongside the army, navy, and air force—that is dedicated to drone warfare, with its own doctrine, leader development, procurement processes, and even recruiting and basic training.

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Despite the current administration’s stated ambition to eventually field tens of thousands of aerial drones and well over a thousand uncrewed surface vessels, Taiwan’s legislature struck domestic drone production from the government’s special defense budget earlier this year. The opposition parties that control the legislature cited fiscal discipline as well as concerns about potential corruption in domestic procurement, but the move’s overall effect was to dramatically reduce new domestic procurement of unmanned systems and to cut funds set aside for joint development of such systems with the United States.

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