Arms Dealers Flocking to Taiwan: A Curse, Not Blessing
United Daily News Commentary, January 20, 2026
President Lai Ching-te delivered Taiwan’s semiconductor supply chain, allowing President Donald Trump of the United States to celebrate his inauguration anniversary in global prominence. With celebration at a somber occasion, the president proudly declared a new chapter for Taiwan’s economy, saying with a smile and a sniff, “As soon as you catch a faint scent on the wind, you know spring has arrived.” Ironically, after the Silicon Shield was thinned, Western and European arms dealers truly caught the scent and came running.
During a speech, Director Raymond Greene of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) revealed that the U.S. company Grumman has already built a “medium-caliber ammunition test range” in Taiwan to assist the Ministry of National Defense (MND) in conducting ammunition tests according to international standards, and to promote indigenous R&D and production through technology transfer and other procedures. This artillery is used in military aircraft guns and air defense systems, including drones. Clearly, this is related to the construction of Taiwan’s shield, preparing production capacity.
Mr. Greene specifically mentioned two U.S. defense startups, Anduril and Shield AI, which are establishing secure supply chains for Taiwan’s drones and other autonomous battlefield systems. He said that the United States sees Taiwan as a key partner in advancing the frontier of defense technology. The United States is a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) research and applications, while Taiwan provides manufacturing and hardware backbone. Their collaboration supports the development and application of drones, command-and-control systems, air defense, and other platforms, enhancing deterrence capabilities.
With traditional U.S. defense industry capacity insufficient and F-16Vs unable to be delivered, drones—“cheap and abundant”—are used to supplement deterrence. Expanding arms sales to Taiwan also allows the United States to leverage Taiwan as a testbed for developing innovative defense industries.
The MND was compelled to disclose the NT$1.25 trillion (about US$39.8 billion) special budget, which includes the procurement of over 200,000 drones, 1,000 unmanned vessels, counter-drone systems, and AI kill-chain systems. All of these are products of the emerging defense industry and will be procured commercially. This business opportunity is not only noticed by the United States; Europe is also highly interested.
A highly Taiwan-friendly German Marshall Fund (GMF) “Transatlantic Delegation” visited Taiwan, seeking to deepen national security cooperation. Besides Bonnie Glaser, a scholar friendly to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), at least half of the eight-member delegation has close ties to the defense industry. Among them, two arms dealers—omitted in the Office of the President press release—were disclosed by military scholar Zhang Jing.
The two omitted individuals are Sven Kruck, co-CEO of Europe’s Quantum Systems, a next-generation unmanned reconnaissance system supplier that gained fame in the Russia–Ukraine war, and Brittany Jacob, government relations manager at ARX Robotics, specializing in autonomous ground vehicles for reconnaissance and transport, also a rising star in the Ukraine battlefield.
The GMF delegation also included former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Denis Mercier and former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe General James Everard. The former currently serves as vice president of France’s Fives military supply chain group and as an advisor to European defense startups; the latter is a senior NATO instructor providing strategic consulting to the defense industry. Both have battlefield experience in Ukraine.
When President Lai met the European guests, he emphasized that Taiwan’s defense budget this year will exceed 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), with a US$40 billion special defense budget to build the “Taiwan Shield” advanced air defense system, while introducing high technology and AI to strengthen the defense industry. These priorities perfectly matched the delegation’s expertise, making collaboration seamless.
Taiwan’s Silicon Shield was self-funded by the Lai administration and sent to the United States. Western and European defense companies ceased supplying Ukraine and turned their attention to Taiwan. Is this the “fragrance of spring” that President Lai celebrated, or the ominous warning foreshadowed in his Washington Post opinion?