Taiwan: Thunder Tiger has delivered all 1,520 drones of the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance first order – targeting phases 3 and 4

Taiwan’s Thunder Tiger announced that the delivery and receipt of all 1,520 drones in the first order of the US Department of Defense’s Drone Dominance programme has been completed. According to the company’s press release of October 16, the team it formed with the Taiwanese group Rehfeldt and the American company Farage Precision took part under the latter’s name in the first evaluation phase, placed 11th and won the first order. The team will now bid for contracts in phases 3 and 4 of the programme.

The roles are divided: Thunder Tiger handles research, systems integration and mass production, using only Blue UAS-certified components compliant with the US NDAA, Rehfeldt has a long relationship with Taiwan’s defence sector, and Farage Precision brings contacts with the US Army and engineers with combat experience. At the AUSA 2026 exhibition in Washington (October 12–14) the team showed a purpose-designed 10-inch FPV drone for the programme. The company writes that through the partnership it has built a full cycle of “research, operational feedback, correction, mass production”, with specifications set by front-line needs and not only laboratory tests, which it notes will also help build drone capabilities for Taiwan’s armed forces. In the same days Thunder Tiger signed a memorandum with AeroVironment to integrate the Switchblade.

Meanwhile Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported that as of 06:00 on Saturday, October 17, it had detected around the island 9 sorties of Chinese military aircraft, 6 People’s Liberation Army Navy warships and 8 official ships. Five of the nine sorties crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the northern, central and south-western air defence identification zones. Taiwanese forces monitored the situation with patrol aircraft, warships and coastal missile systems.

Taiwan is investing in unmanned systems at sea too, with its Coast Guard buying American Devil Ray T24 unmanned boats. In his National Day speech, President Lai Ching-te had said that Taiwan “loves peace but will not give up its freedom”.