Drone bills face review - Taipei Times

• By Wu Che-yu,Hsu Yung-chinand Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer

Lawmakers are expected to review competing bills on a domestic military drone procurement plan in a joint committee on Thursday.

On June 18, the Executive Yuan proposed a special budget for the procurement of domestically produced drones after the removal of clauses for the development of uncrewed aerial and surface vehicles from the special defense budget in May.

The Executive Yuan's drone procurement proposal would provide authorization for a NT$210 billion (US$6.53 billion) special budget for drone procurement to be allocated over the next five years.

Photo: Taipei Times

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) drafted a six-year domestic drone procurement budget of NT$240 billion to be allocated annually through the general budget.

The Taiwan People's Party's (TPP) draft proposal would return procurement to the annual budget process, remove overall funding caps, and establish a special committee to develop policy guidelines and speed up industrial transformation.

A version proposed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chu-yin (林楚茵) would be reviewed along with the versions by the Cabinet, the KMT and the TPP during a joint session by the Finance, Economics, Foreign Affairs and National Defense committees.

DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), convener of the legislature's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, yesterday expressed regret that the bills would be primarily reviewed by the Economics Committee, rather than the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.

The KMT's and the TPPs' versions differ significantly from the Executive Yuan's proposal in that the opposition parties call for the procurement to return to the annual government budget process, Chen said, adding that the items they included might not fully address the Ministry of National Defense's most urgent needs.

Placing the Ministry of Economic Affairs in charge would mean that the bill is reviewed primarily by the Legislative Yuan's Economics Committee instead of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, a shift that he said moves away from the original legislative focus on improving defense capabilities.

Uncrewed systems are fundamentally a national defense issue involving force development, operational requirements and military procurement, and should therefore be reviewed by lawmakers with defense expertise, Chen said.

While the Ministry of Economic Affairs should continue supporting the domestic drone industry and its supply chains, industrial policy cannot replace defense procurement, he said.

Opposing the use of special budgets to quickly grow combat capabilities and passing laws to demand that administrative units set aside special budgets would muddle whose power and responsibility it is to set the budget, as well as politicizing the issue to the point where a drone force would be difficult to establish, Chen said.

National defense capabilities and industrial growth should be pursued separately, allowing both ministries to focus on their respective specialties and enabling Taiwan to grow its asymmetric capabilities, he said.

In response, KMT Legislator Liao Wei-hsiang (廖偉翔) said yesterday the party's draft centers on "building an industrial supply chain," with key responsibilities falling mainly under the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.

He argued that assigning the bill to the Legislative Yuan's Economics Committee for review would allow it to better reflect industry needs.

TPP Legislator Wang An-hsiang (王安祥) said the party's proposal calls for the establishment of an Industrial Development Strategy Committee, jointly overseen by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense, to ensure both industrial development and defense requirements are taken into account.

Additional reporting by Lo Kuo-chia