A former senior US defense official warned that Taiwan is running out of time to build up its drone forces, a mixed message for Taiwan: the tools to deter China exist, but the money and speed do not yet.

• Jedidiah Royal, formerly the top US deputy for Indo-Pacific security, said Taiwan's parliament should pass a bigger defense budget to speed up homegrown drone production.
• He described two clocks ticking at once: a "threat clock" set by China's military buildup around Xi Jinping's 2027, 2035 and 2049 markers, and a "delivery clock" of Taiwan actually arming itself.
• Taiwan's new drone spending package is welcome, but progress is slower than expected a year ago, and the weak spot is the command-and-control systems behind the drones.
• Older conventional weapons will matter less over time as China's forces get more advanced and more lethal, pushing Taiwan toward cheap, fast, hard-to-stop systems.
• Taiwan should team up with Australia, Japan and the Philippines on testing, factories and repair hubs, and Washington needs to deliver already-approved arms sales faster.

Outlook: Pressure now shifts to Taiwan's legislature, where the size of the next defense budget will decide how fast drone production can ramp.