Taiwan has begun deployment of its first fully domestically developed satellite constellation, known as FORMOSAT-8, marking a significant milestone for the island's growing aerospace ambitions. The first of the eight-satellite system, designated FS-8A, departed from the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) on October 7, 2025, and is en route to the United States for final testing and integration.
To accelerate its expansion in the drone market, Qisda has recently incorporated two drone companies, one of which is Dragonfly UAS. Apart from being a distributor in Taiwan for American firm Skydio's drones that are in active use by the US military, Dragonfly UAS has also launched its self-developed vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones.
The Russia-Ukraine war has fundamentally reshaped modern warfare, and recent Pentagon concerns about missile stockpiles have underscored a strategic shift. Future conflicts are expected to favor low-cost, mass-produced weapons built from mature commercial technology and scalable private-sector manufacturing.
Alongside official collaborations between Taiwan's National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) and leading Western defense contractors, private companies such as AbonMax are accelerating their efforts in developing attack drones.
Indian fabless semiconductor startup Silizium Circuits has completed the end-to-end design of a GaAs-based 5G low-noise amplifier (LNA), or front-end module (FEM), marking a step forward in the country's push for self-reliance in analog and RF chip design.
Taiwanese defense suppliers are doubling down on both domestic and overseas orders as global demand for military hardware accelerates. Unmanned systems have become a central focus of Taiwan's defense self-reliance strategy, with the Ministry of National Defense planning large-scale drone and unmanned vessel procurements. Rising defense budgets in the US and Europe, where governments are seeking to replenish arsenals, add further momentum to the sector.
Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC) is preparing for a major business shift as its advanced jet trainer program wraps up in 2026. The aerospace giant announced it is aggressively pursuing new contracts, with a sharp focus on unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to fuel its future growth in the defense sector.
As governments and businesses worldwide demand greater communications resilience, relying solely on terrestrial mobile networks and fixed-line infrastructure no longer suffices.
The global space economy is entering a period of rapid expansion, triggering a wide-scale reorganization of investment flows and supply chains. At the center of this transformation, Taiwan is positioning itself to capitalize on its strength in ground-based satellite technologies, particularly in high-performance antenna systems critical for low Earth orbit (LEO) communications.
Senior US Space Force generals warned that China has become the nation's top threat in space, rapidly expanding its orbital military capabilities to challenge American forces.
As the Russia–Ukraine war rages on, another battle of intelligence and counterintelligence is quietly unfolding in the deep sea. The Canadian firm MetOcean is one of only a handful of suppliers offering solutions in this sector with its NiKA underwater acoustic monitoring system, which was recently showcased at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE) 2025. Combining precision detection capabilities with versatile strategic value, NiKA can be used in a wide range of applications from submarine surveillance to subsea cable protection.
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