Taiwan's vice defense minister says the country may join a new U.S.-led initiative to allow some Indo-Pacific countries to manufacture weapons together.
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00:00When it comes to making weapons, the U.S. is a global leader.
00:08Everything from artillery shells to warships, its weapon systems are some of the best in
00:12the world.
00:13Part of the reason why has been Washington's continued spending on military technology.
00:18But some observers say that times are changing.
00:21If citizens in other countries look at how much America spends in defense, it's an extraordinarily
00:27high number.
00:28But if you look at it from the U.S. perspective and the challenge that the U.S. military has
00:32in all the obligations it has around the world, the U.S. is constrained.
00:39Wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, as well as soaring global demand for U.S. weapons,
00:44is making it difficult for the U.S. defense industry to keep up.
00:48With new threats in the Indo-Pacific emerging, the U.S. is looking for help.
00:53Just a Navy yard in Philadelphia used to build dozens of warships back in World War
00:58II, and it was a symbol of how strong the U.S. defense space was.
01:02Faced with threats from China, it's now looking at countries like Taiwan to help co-produce
01:07some of the world's most crucial weapons.
01:10At the U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference, Taiwan's defense ministry told Taiwan Plus
01:15that the U.S. has invited Taiwan to be part of a brand new initiative that could bring
01:21the two sides closer to producing critical weapon systems.
01:50The vice minister was talking about a new production plan called PIPER, which stands
01:55for Partnership on Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience.
01:59Preliminary plans show it aims to link up defense supply chains across 13 Asian countries.
02:04The goal is to pull together resources to minimize costs in producing things like missiles,
02:09fighter jets and drones with other countries.
02:12For Taiwan, this could be game-changing, as it is often excluded from the international
02:16community due to threats and pressure from China.
02:20To understand what Taiwan will be able to do under PIPER, we met with Kelly Greco, a
02:24senior fellow with the Stimson Center who focuses on U.S. grand strategy.
02:30Defense officials at this U.S.-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference talked about the PIPER
02:34initiative.
02:35What role can Taiwan play in that initiative?
02:38There's a real opportunity for Taiwan to seize an advantage with the drone revolution and
02:44producing its own drones for its own defense, but being able to do so in large numbers and
02:49that it can scale up rapidly because it would eliminate the need logistically to have to
02:54import all these things.
02:56Kelly says that Taiwan's robust drone industry could be key to providing the best possible
03:01defense strategy as Taiwan faces the threat of invasion from China.
03:06The U.S. and Taiwan don't have official ties, but Washington provides Taiwan with almost
03:10all of its military equipment.
03:12And many believe smaller, more portable systems like drones are the way to go.
03:19While PIPER is still new and no concrete agreements have been made, Taiwan's leading semiconductor
03:24industry could work with U.S. and Taiwanese defense contractors in a joint effort, as
03:29these specialized chips are needed to make advanced systems.
03:34And so the co-production might also be that maybe the United States is providing some
03:38parts, components that it makes, and then Taiwan assembles them.
03:42Or it could be the opposite, that Taiwan is providing some components, like semiconductors
03:46for example, that the United States is using on other weapon systems.
03:51Taiwan already has plans to create what it calls a drone fleet, tens of thousands of
03:55these unmanned systems that could defend the country.
03:58It hopes to build these weapons as quickly as possible.
04:01With help from the U.S. and other allies, the PIPER initiative aims to show that there
04:05is indeed strength in numbers.
04:08Andy Hsu and Jaime O'Connor in Washington, D.C. for Taiwan Plus.