July 19, 2026: Last month, the Taiwanese government proposed spending $6.6 billion to purchase about 211,000 locally manufactured drones to prepare for a potential Chinese invasion. There are 208,200 attack drones, 1,446 reconnaissance drones, and 1,320 naval attack drones. Taiwan is in the process of procuring MQ-9 SeaGuardian and Alyius drones.

Taiwan has been threatened with a Chinese attack for over 70 years. Spending three percent of GDP on defense led the current American president to suggest ten percent. The Americans depend on strong Taiwanese defenses because the U.S. is obliged by treaty to send military forces to augment Taiwanese efforts to block a Chinese attack.

Taiwan has been continually upgrading its defenses. Some of the more recent upgrades include SEAD/Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses capabilities. This includes purchasing the AGM-88E HARM High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile. Taiwan has also upgraded some of its F-16s to the latest F-16V variant, which includes the ability to use the AGM-88E. Taiwan also upgraded its F-16s to this F-16V Block 52 standard.

Taiwan has developed a new SEAD Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses loitering munition called Chien Hsiang/Rising Sword. This is a compact 1.2 x 2 meter propeller-driven drone weighing 6 kg. Cruise speed is 185 kilometers an hour, endurance is five hours, and max range is 900 kilometers. Its guidance system consists mostly of electronic sensors that detect signals from specific radars or other systems that continuously emit electronic signals. In addition, there is a video system that uses an image library to identify a specific system to attack. This is done by Chien Hsiang, which dives and hits the target at speeds of up to 600 kilometers an hour. This is sufficient to destroy or disable antennas or radars.

Chien Hsiang is stored and launched from a box-shaped container that is part of a 3x4 configuration, mounted on a trailer at a fixed location, or on a ship. The drones can be launched individually or in rapid succession to form a swarm. The guidance system handles swarm management and coordination. This enables multiple drones to search an area and, when a target is found, several or all members of the swarm will attack. Mass production of Chien Hsiang won’t begin until 2024 because of the time required to perfect the guidance system software. While Chien Hsiang is relatively slow, it is small and emits little noise and no electronic signals. That makes it jamming-proof and difficult to spot and shoot. Also purchased were 135 SLAM-ER Standoff Land Attack Missiles, eleven HIMARS High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rocket launcher vehicles, and six MS-110 reconnaissance pods.

The AGM-84K SLAM-ER entered service in 2000. It is a 675-kg cruise missile with a range of 270 kilometers, a speed of 855 kilometers per hour, and a GPS/shape-recognition guidance system that has proved very accurate. The target can be changed, or the mission aborted remotely by the pilot at any time. SLAM-ER costs nearly a million dollars each and has a 220-kg warhead based on the one used on the Tomahawk cruise missile. SLAM-ER is actually a scaled-up Harpoon anti-ship missile.

HIMARS rocket launcher vehicles fire GPS-guided rockets at targets nearly a hundred kilometers distant. Half of the new HIMARS order is for heavier trucks with added armor. These heavy trucks are typically used as wreckers to retrieve vehicles that get stuck. HIMARS can also fire larger, longer-range ATACMS rockets with a 300-kilometer range. Each of these takes up an entire pod, and each ATACMS carries 300 smaller bombs that can destroy armored vehicles or personnel. Also on order are 65 pods, each with six GMLRS rockets, and 90 pods with shorter-range, cheaper practice rockets. The order also includes spares, maintenance equipment, and technical support and training.

HIMARS is a cheaper, lighter version of the original MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System). HIMARS is a truck-mounted launcher, with each vehicle carrying only one six-rocket pod instead of two in the original MLRS. The 12-ton truck can fit into a C-130 transport, unlike the 22-ton tracked MLRS vehicle. The first of the initial 900 HIMARS vehicles were issued to American combat units in 2004. The U.S. Army is using most of the HIMARS, with the Marines getting the rest. A growing number of American allies have become export customers for HIMARS. The key to the combat success of HIMARS is its use of the 227mm diameter, 309 kg GMLRS/Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System GPS-guided rocket. GMLRS was first used in 2004. It currently has a range of 85 kilometers and the ability to land within meters of its intended target at any range.