TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan will produce 7,700 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for military use by 2028, according to a white paper released by the country’s defense ministry on Tuesday (Sept. 12).

The “Republic of China (Taiwan) National Defense Report 2023” surveys the military threats faced by Taiwan and the country’s ability to combat them. After reviewing armed forces defense needs, the military has “decided to incorporate UAVs into their force buildup plans,” the report reads.

Seven hundred of the UAVs will be military grade, and 7,000 commercial. The report said that five prototypes for “army-purpose UAVs” have already been completed, and 36 units will be delivered to the military by July 31.

The UAVs are part of Taiwan’s “Five-year Force Buildup Plan,” which also involves increasing foreign arms purchases, improving indigenous defense technologies, improving training, and increasing recruitment. Force buildup is related to “how we fight dictates what we equip, how we organize, what we acquire, and how we train,” the report reads.

Taiwan’s leaders have paid increased attention to drones after seeing their effective deployment in the Ukraine war. “Ukraine, which was previously considered as lacking air supremacy, cleverly used drones to create its own partial air supremacy,” a Taiwan government report obtained by Reuters stated.

Incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone are being normalized by the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to sap Taiwan’s morale, the report reads. It also said the PLA is using rhetorical intimidation and misinformation to build its capacity to launch operations against Taiwan.

The report said that Taiwan is a geographical “linchpin” for containing China’s expansion of maritime power into the Pacific Ocean. The word “contain” in relation to China appeared five times in the report, up from zero mentions in 2021.

The number of pages describing the military capabilities of China’s People’s Liberation Army also increased from 10 to 19 when compared to the ministry’s last white paper. The report also includes a map of U.S. military installations in the Pacific for the first time.

In addition to outlining the development and growth of the threat from China’s armed forces, the white paper also noted climate change, infectious diseases, and cyber, energy, and food security as security challenges for Taiwan.