Notes from Central Taiwan: Where are all the drones?

The military and civilian applications of drones in warfare, from reconnaissance to attacking vehicles to delivering supplies to beleaguered civilians and soldiers, are well known and oft-discussed — though not enough in Taiwan

• By Michael Turton / Contributing reporter

In March, CNN reported on the public exhibition of new made-in-Taiwan drones for military applications. The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), a government-owned weapons developer, displayed five different types of drones, including surveillance and loitering drones, weapons systems now revolutionizing land warfare in Ukraine.

The suicide drone developed by the NCSIST has a range of 10km and can fit in a rucksack, according to local media reports. The government has plans to field a fleet of drones next year.

USEFUL MODEL

Ukraine has taught everyone that there is no such thing as having too many drones. Its drone experiences offer a useful model for Taiwan.

Until January, Ukraine’s drone programs depended heavily on imported civilian models to augment its plethora of military drones. Training was carried out by private groups, such as the famed Dronarium. According to Dronarium officials quoted in the international media, the training program for drone pilots takes only five days, of which only one and a half are spent in learning to pilot the vehicles. Some 4,500 people have graduated from it.

Until January the drone pilots were not formally integrated into Ukraine’s military, but that month Ukraine formed 60 companies of drone pilots. They often use fast drones with good endurance, originally intended for drone racing, but repurposed for fast, longer-range attacks. Popular drones include drones from the Chinese maker DJI, which are also common in Taiwan.

The Taiwan military is well aware of the potential of drones. Yet, the handbook on civil defense that came out last week appears to have ignored them. That’s a shame, because drones could easily become an important driver of social change through civil defense programs.

BENEFITS

The military and civilian applications of drones in warfare, from reconnaissance to attacking vehicles to delivering supplies to beleaguered civilians and soldiers, are well known and oft-discussed. Yet there does not seem to be much discussion of the political and social functions of drone training and how useful it might be in Taiwan.

Readers will recall that in the Martial Law era young males were socialized into Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) propaganda during their military service. “Military service” was far more like Communist re-education camps than it was military training. The involvement of the military in administering martial law and suppressing dissent, and the profoundly negative experience of military service for so many young males, has left Taiwan’s society with a low opinion of military service.

Drones are cool. A civil defense training program in drone warfare, in conjunction with the military, would help boost the military’s dismal image in society. Adding a drone training segment to the new program to hold reservists for a year instead of four months would also help ameliorate objections to the one-year service among the young (since it inconveniences only young men, it has strong support among the public).

The Dronarium experience shows that such a program would neither be onerous nor expensive. Reservists could even meet periodically to maintain their drone skills through a civil defense program after they finish their service, enabling the military to keep the reserves fresh while offering troops a fun and cool alternative to sweeping floors and polishing weapons. This would also help better integrate the military into civil defense programming.

Civil-military relations would also be helped if the military were more involved with Taiwan’s drone racing and hobbyist community. Imagine if military officials showed up at drone racing venues with cool military tech for hobbyists to play with. The administration of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should already be promoting this.

MORALE BOOSTER

Further, many conscripts, after going through military training, feel that Taiwan’s military situation is hopeless and they are just fodder. Drone training would offer recruits and the public the feeling that they can take meaningful action with cool gear to strike back at invaders, a morale booster. Those groups that are unhappy with the idea of doing military training could be offered an integrated civil defense alternative that would teach the use of drones in agricultural, rescue and surveillance applications that would be useful in wartime as well.

Current election polls show that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took a hit among the young because of the military service extension, among other things. Announcing a drone training program would not only help the administration’s image, but also link, in a visceral way, the experience of Ukraine, where drones have become famous, to Taiwan.

Such links suggest another benefit of a national civil defense drone program: giving pro-Taiwan sentiments in Taiwan a boost, and making the threat to the nation’s future more real. Helping the DPP get re-elected would be a nifty side benefit.

One problem Ukraine has faced is production and acquisition of drones. At present it produces less than 15 percent of the drones it uses. In combat in Ukraine, according to a Politico article, civilian drones last only 2-3 weeks. The demand for drones in the event of an invasion of Taiwan is going to be enormous.

Although Taiwan has many drone firms such as JC Tech (established in 2018) and Geosat Aerospace & Technology (established in 2008), a civil defense drone initiative would help drive the development of a local drone industry with a robust ecosystem of upstream and downstream firms.

Once trained in drone operation through civil defense programs in local community centers, in their military service and in community college, many Taiwanese would take up drones as a hobby, funded entirely on their own. The government could encourage this by subsidizing drone activities such as racing, rescue drills and surveillance practice. A drone tech research center was established in Chiayi last August, but more are needed. The government might also consider adding a two-day drone training program to the high school education curriculum.

A robust drone making capacity here would help address the urgent problem of Chinese maker DJI’s dominance of local and global markets. Although Chinese drones were banned in Taiwan government agencies last year, they remain popular in Taiwan. Competing drones are needed, with an eye to eventual export markets, both military and civilian.

Civil defense should be more than just how to avoid trouble, as the new handbook advises. It needs to be training in things like learning to grow food and tourniquets, and, it turns out, drones.

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.