In a significant step toward modernization, Taiwan’s military has formally created dedicated drone units, while the defense ministry has also launched an AI project office. To understand what these developments could mean for Taiwan’s future battlefield capabilities, TaiwanPlus spoke with GLOBSEC associate fellow Bryce Barros.
00:00The Defense Ministry says it has set up an AI project office for the military.
00:05What do you expect to see from this new office?
00:07I think a big thing that this office should focus on is making sure that Taiwan has a better integration of artificial intelligence when it comes to identifying, surveilling, and doing reconnaissance on whatever kind of PLA or Chinese-related drones might be coming into Taiwan's sort of territorial waters,
00:28which is a real possibility in the future.
00:30I think the other thing that this office could do, too, is ensuring that Taiwan is quickly able to integrate its different sort of a joint operation, common operation picture,
00:41to be able to better sort of assess a battlefield, figure out what it needs to do next, that kind of thing.
00:46Having an AI office of M&D allows Taiwan to be able to do faster, quicker, and more efficient,
00:54and allows more soldiers, airmen, marines, sailors, et cetera, policemen, in the case of Taiwan,
01:02to focus on, you know, other sort of tasks related to what their basic sort of skills are for whatever service branch they're in.
01:10Another important development is Taiwan's establishment of new drone units.
01:15How do you view the significance of formally bringing drones into military service?
01:19So, one, Taiwan needs to have a better understanding of what are the tactics, techniques, procedures that come with engaging in drone warfare in today's day and age.
01:29I think the most important thing is making sure that Taiwan is able to use UUVs, USVs, and UAVs that are longer range
01:38to keep PLA forces at bay as long as they can possibly be kept at,
01:44or keep the fight away from the Taiwan main island as long as possible.
01:48I also think that one of the things that Taiwan's going to need to do as it sort of ramps up its significance of formally bringing drones in military service
01:55is making sure that they are producing more drones.
02:00And that includes a lot of the back-end, non-sexy policies related to defense, industrial-based sort of issues around drones.
02:09And given that drones are a dual-use capability, right, Taiwan has a really interesting economy that can sort of pivot from one to the other.
02:15In your view, how can Taiwan best integrate AI and drones for use on the battlefield?
02:21I think the key for integrating AI and drones in the battlefield, first and foremost, as I alluded to earlier,
02:27is making sure that you're integrating UUVs, USVs, and UAVs that are longer range that can keep the fight away from the main island.
02:34And that doesn't just range from using drones that can sort of launch on themselves and whatnot.
02:42It also could be as simple as having a Taiwan Navy sailor operating from, you know, aboard a small vessel,
02:52a counter-drone gun that could protect their own ship, right?
02:56Or one of the first-person view FPV drones or whatever that might have a tether or something like that from aboard their vessel themselves physically,
03:06not just the autonomous piece of it.
03:07The last thing I would talk about when it comes to integrating AI and drones,
03:12and specifically artificial intelligence or autonomous weapon systems,
03:17and counter-drone is most important, I think.
03:20Putting a very strong premium on counter-drone and a hardening basis is going to be really key.
03:26So making sure that Taiwan has all the counter-drone capabilities it can muster for every defensive facility
03:32or every key government facility is going to be really important going forward.
03:37Because I think that that's the bigger vulnerability.
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