00:00The future of Taiwan's defense is taking off in the country's center.
00:04This drone, called Iron Triangle, is based on the U.S.'s Lucas-loitering munition
00:09and was developed by local firm Thunder Tiger Group.
00:13Designed to be cost-effective and mass-produced,
00:16it could soon play a critical role in Taiwan's defense against China,
00:20which claims Taiwan as part of its territory.
00:43Thunder Tiger Group says it drew lessons from the Iran war when designing the drone.
00:49That conflict has seen Iran use fleets of low-cost drones
00:52to overwhelm far more expensive U.S. missile defenses.
00:55The firm says about one million U.S. dollars are now being spent on tooling.
01:01Mass production should start in about four months.
01:04A prototype has already been released
01:06and international cooperation on field testing is underway.
01:27The Iron Triangle system comes as Taiwan works toward building a China-free supply chain
01:33for its fleet of both aerial and naval drones, and the world is taking notice.
01:53Taiwan's government is committed to developing the country's drone fleets,
01:58making it a key target for spending in a special defense budget put forth in November.
02:03If the government gets its way,
02:05the country could procure more than 200,000 drones and unmanned vessels
02:09and invest heavily in domestic production.
02:12But that budget remains stalled in the legislature,
02:16and local production is a contentious issue.
02:19So while local firms like Thunder Tiger Group are getting prototypes off the ground,
02:24the outlook for other Taiwanese companies like it is uncertain.
02:28Scott Huang, John Su, and Ellen Lu for Taiwan Plus.
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