By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-22 00:02:11 | Updated at 2026-09-22 00:41:55
49 minutes ago
Palmer Luckey wants Taiwan to think bigger than supplying its own military.
At a Sept. 19 forum in Taipei, the Anduril Industries founder argued that Taiwan should design defense products for overseas buyers from the start and build production at a scale large enough to make other countries depend on Taiwanese supply.
“Taiwan has to become a very powerful defense exporter,” Luckey said, adding that domestic orders alone are too small to sustain the industrial base needed for long-term deterrence.
Taiwan is already moving in that direction.
Eight days earlier, it promulgated the Act for Strengthening National Defense Autonomy and Development of the Unmanned Vehicle Industry, which requires the central government to budget NT$240 billion over six years—about $7.6 billion—to implement a new industrial framework for unmanned systems.
The law takes effect on March 11, 2027.
Taiwan’s drone exports are also rising sharply.
According to a July statement from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan’s exports of complete drones rose from $4.41 million in 2024 to $212 million in the first half of 2026.
Turning Civilian Factories Toward Defense
Luckey told the International Forum of the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee that Taiwan already has much of what a defense industry needs—semiconductors, machine tools, precision components, advanced composites, skilled workers, and sophisticated manufacturing.
“It just needs to apply them to the defense space,” he said.
He argued that Taiwan should build on its existing commercial industries rather than wait to create an entirely separate defense-production system after a crisis begins.
Luckey warned that democracies had a tendency to wait until a threat becomes undeniable, only to discover that factories, suppliers, machinery, and skilled workers cannot be created on demand.
Taiwanese companies already manufacture products across sectors including drones, aerospace components, automotive parts, and medical equipment.
Luckey said those production lines should be prepared to shift toward weapons production at much larger volumes when needed.
Taiwan’s new law follows a similar industrial direction. It calls for civilian military technology transfer and wider use of the island’s information technology and precision machinery industries in defense and unmanned systems.
It requires at least three civilian military testing sites by March 11, 2028, and calls for autonomous operation, swarming, anti-jamming navigation, modular design, and rapid mass-production capacity.
Build for Export From the Start
Luckey said Taiwan should design weapons with foreign customers in mind from the beginning rather than satisfy domestic military demand first and consider exports later.
He used Taiwan’s airsoft industry to make the point.
“Don’t just sell airsoft guns. Make real guns,” Luckey told the forum.
He urged Taiwanese manufacturers to sell weapons to countries that “share Taiwan’s commitment to freedom” and build relationships in which those countries increasingly depend on Taiwanese defense production.
Luckey compared that ambition with Taiwan’s position in the semiconductor industry, where replacing Taiwanese production remains difficult despite efforts by other countries to diversify their supply chains.
The goal, he said, is for people around the world—“whether they’re buying from you or just afraid of you”—to see “designed in Taiwan, made in Taiwan” on a weapons system and immediately understand what the label represents.
Taiwan’s new law directs the government to set international market and export targets and support overseas sales of Taiwan-made unmanned systems.
Anduril Deepens Taiwan Ties
Luckey’s defense technology company is already tied into Taiwan’s manufacturing base.
At the Sept. 19 forum, he said Anduril uses Taiwanese chips and sensors and works with nearly 100 Taiwanese suppliers.
On June 3, Anduril and Taiwan’s government-backed Metal Industries Research & Development Centre signed an agreement covering AI autonomous systems, drone manufacturing, localized production, supply chain integration, and development of non-China supply chains.
In the June statement, Taiwan’s Industrial Development Administration said more than 10 Taiwanese companies had already received Anduril prototype or mass-production orders involving drone airframes, payload equipment, and propulsion systems.
Luckey said on Sept. 19 that deeper industrial ties could give the United States and other partners a greater stake in Taiwan’s security, while acknowledging that foreign governments and companies will continue trying to diversify their own supply chains.
Anduril is already supplying Taiwan’s military. The Defense Ministry said the Army received its first batch of Altius-600M attack drone systems on Aug. 4, 2025.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo met Luckey the following day.
Metal Industries Research & Development Centre Chairwoman Liu Chia-ju and Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey sign a memorandum of understanding on drone cooperation in Taiwan on June 3, 2026. Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiu Chiu-hui attended the signing. Courtesy of Taiwan’s Industrial Development Administration
US Policy Moves Toward Co-Production
The industrial push also overlaps with U.S. policy.
Section 1266 of the fiscal 2026 U.S. defense authorization law directs the Defense Department, in coordination with the State Department and acting through the American Institute in Taiwan, to seek a joint unmanned- and counter-unmanned-systems program with Taiwan.
The law includes co-development and co-production for U.S. and Taiwanese forces.
Luckey on Sustaining Resistance
Luckey said Taiwan’s preparations should be designed not only to make an invasion difficult at the outset, but also to make any attempt to occupy the island difficult to sustain.
He argued that Beijing should have to consider more than whether Chinese forces could land. It should also consider whether Taiwan could continue resisting over a prolonged conflict.
That is where the production capacity he described becomes part of the deterrence equation. Factories able to shift into weapons manufacturing and supply chains capable of sustaining production would give Taiwan more ability to keep fighting after the opening phase of a war.
Luckey said Beijing would have to think about what resistance could look like on day 10, day 100, or day 1,000.
A successful landing, he argued, would not necessarily amount to victory.
The objective is “to force Beijing into exactly that calculation,” Luckey said—into understanding that “the cost of winning makes it impossible to win.”
