Taiwan's opposition Taiwan People's Party is blocking the Executive Yuan's NT$210 billion special budget bill for military drones — bad news for defence procurement timelines, good news for those scrutinising the spending.

• The TPP held a forum featuring retired military officers and public finance scholars, arguing that the money should return to the regular annual budget rather than go through a special budget.
• Retired navy captain Ku Tsun-chu said the armed forces lack parts, maintenance capacity and training doctrine, and cannot sustain 210,000 drones; he gave the programme a score of just 9 out of 100.
• Critics said drone warfare is a matter of electronic warfare and communications, and that without space-based relay and control of the spectrum the drones would easily be countered in wartime, with the machines becoming obsolete en masse within a few years.
• Huang Yao-hui, a professor at the National Taipei University of Business, said the draft bill runs to only seven articles yet calls for spending NT$210 billion, amounting to a blank cheque, and that unit prices are far above international market rates.
• Lu Te-yun, a former Ministry of National Defense inspector, said procurement items are concentrated on near-shore defence and would be of no use if the enemy imposed a blockade or applied grey-zone pressure, adding that requirements have been hijacked by manufacturers and interest groups.

Outlook: The special budget bill looks likely to be stalled or heavily cut in the Legislative Yuan. The TPP is calling for a dedicated committee to be set up and for a certification system modelled on the US Blue UAS programme.