Special defense budget could help local industryCONSOLIDATED PRODUCTION: Local production of ordnance could make money and aid security in peace time and help refill rapidly depleted arsenals in wartimeBy Fang Wei-li / Staff reporterThe US supports a comprehensive special defense budget because it focuses on two core objectives — building a “non-red supply chain” and building redundancy for “logistics and replenishment,” a defense analyst said yesterday. Deliberations over the special defense budget hit a stalemate last week as the opposition parties insisted on removing the line items related to “consignment production” and “commercial procurement,” preventing a cross-party consensus from being reached. Second, it encourages US investment in Taiwan, driving profits for the local defense industry and expanding its market scale, he said. The Ministry of National Defense announced plans to build 14 new ordnance production lines to establish local production capacity in Taiwan, he said. Since US price quotes are time-sensitive, any delays would force the Defense Security Cooperation Agency to go through the US Department of Defense and have suppliers and contractors re-estimate prices for the next 90 days, he said.

Source: Taipei Times March 29, 2026 17:13 UTC