President Lai to launch Chiayi aerospace park to boost drone industry

The National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology's (NCSIST) Minsiong Aerospace and Drone Industrial Park in Chiayi County is about to reach a major milestone. President Lai Ching-te is scheduled to personally preside over the inauguration ceremony for the Minsiong campus on the 28th, which will also feature a groundbreaking ceremony for the industrial park. This vital construction project, spearheaded by the Ministry of National Defense and NCSIST, marks a brand-new phase in Taiwan's path toward promoting national defense autonomy and developing the drone industry. On the eve of the ceremony, NCSIST explained that the Minsiong campus has successfully established pilot research and manufacturing capabilities for drones during its preliminary stage. Moving forward, it plans to further build a world-class digital environment and spare no effort in creating a highly secure and resilient non-red drone supply chain, demonstrating Taiwan's defense and industrial adaptability in the face of geopolitical challenges.

Looking back at the promotion of this initiative, Taiwan has in recent years actively absorbed lessons from various international military conflicts, deeply recognizing the critical role drones play in modern asymmetric warfare. To break away from past reliance on components and supply chains from specific countries, the government has elevated the development of the drone industry to a high strategic level concerning national security and defense autonomy. Because Chiayi County possesses existing industry-academia-research foundations such as the Asia UAV AI Innovation Application Center (A-idea), along with suitable geographical and airspace conditions, it was selected as the primary development base for Taiwan's drone hub. The establishment and opening of the NCSIST Minsiong campus is a concrete implementation of closely combining defense research and development energy with local industrial clusters, with the ultimate goal of transforming Taiwan into a key hub for drone research, development, and production in the Asia-Pacific region.

In NCSIST's overall planning, the core mission of the Minsiong campus in its initial stage is to establish and complete pilot research and manufacturing capabilities for drones. This means that the campus will not merely serve as an administrative office or a simple assembly site, but rather as a professional base equipped with complete functions ranging from conceptual design, prototype manufacturing, and performance testing to small-scale trial production. Leveraging the deep technological foundation NCSIST has accumulated over many years in aerospace and defense technology, the Minsiong campus will be able to conduct rapid technological iteration and performance verification targeting the demands of dual-use drones. The completion of this preliminary capability will substantially shorten the time cycle from research and development to practical application for Taiwan's drones, ensuring that our nation keeps pace with the international forefront in drone technology development.

Beyond the establishment of hardware and pilot manufacturing capabilities, NCSIST has also mapped out a long-term digital development blueprint for the Minsiong campus. In the future, the campus will further construct an international-grade digital environment, encompassing advanced digital design, simulation analysis, and smart manufacturing management systems. Through a highly integrated digital platform, researchers will be able to conduct drone aerodynamics simulations, avionics integration, and extreme environment testing in a virtual environment, thereby reducing the costs and risks of physical testing. Such a digital environment not only helps enhance research and development efficiency but also serves as a vital foundation for aligning with advanced international defense industries and engaging in technological exchange and cooperation, enabling Taiwan's drone research and development capacity to meet high international standard specifications.

Notably, NCSIST specifically emphasized that the Minsiong campus will forge a "non-red supply chain" characterized by both security and resilience in the future. Amid intense global geopolitical rivalry, cybersecurity risks and supply chain security for drones have become core issues of common concern among democratic nations. Many international customers and allies harbor deep reservations regarding drones containing components from the red supply chain. At this juncture, Taiwan's active construction of a pure, secure, and highly resilient non-red supply chain is intended not only to meet the defense needs of Taiwan's armed forces, but also to win the trust and orders of international democratic allies. Through the demonstration and driving effect of the Minsiong campus, Taiwan is poised to fill strategic gaps in the global drone market created by supply chain restructuring.

Taking a comprehensive view of the upcoming inauguration and groundbreaking ceremony for the Minsiong campus to be presided over by President Lai, its underlying significance extends far beyond mere engineering construction; it represents Taiwan's firm determination declared to the entire world to promote national defense autonomy and industrial transformation. With the completion of the Minsiong campus's preliminary pilot manufacturing capabilities and the future gradual implementation of a digital environment and a non-red supply chain, NCSIST will continue to play the role of a locomotive. By uniting the strengths of domestic industry, government, academia, and research sectors, it will jointly forge a secure, autonomous, and internationally competitive drone industrial ecosystem for Taiwan, further consolidating Taiwan's democratic defense line and technological strength in the Indo-Pacific region.