One way to tell whether a country is getting serious about defence is the size of its arms exhibitions. The one held in Taipei from 18 to 20 September was Taiwan’s biggest yet, reflecting the government’s intention to increase defence spending to 3.32 percent of GDP in 2026, up from approximately 2.4 percent this year.

Another feature of the 2025 exhibition was the prominence of an organisation tasked with strengthening deterrence against a Chinese invasion through asymmetric capabilities, the All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency, which was established in 2022.

Defence exhibitions reflect the level of a country’s expected acquisition effort because that’s the basis on which manufacturers decide whether to participate and at what scale. What they exhibit also implies what they judge to be the category of equipment that armed forces may buy. And such exhibitions are opportunities for military services and arms-development agencies to let the public know what they’ve been up to.

The show held every two years in Taiwan is the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition. This year, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) unveiled new systems and staged high-profile demonstrations, underscoring its role in bolstering the island’s security. The show exceeded its earlier editions by drawing 400 exhibitors from 14 countries. Elbit Systems of America returned for the first time since 2001, joined by other Israeli firms. Their participation, along with the MND’s close ties to Israel’s defence industry, prompted anti-Israel protests on the final day.

A centrepiece of the show was the All-Out Defense Initiative, a program aimed at modernising equipment, strengthening cyber-security and building a national mobilisation plan to counter conventional and emerging threats. The exhibition also hosted two forums on space technology and uncrewed systems.

Joint ventures featured prominently at the MND pavilion. Taiwan’s defence-technology agency, the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, is working with Kratos Defense of the United States on the Mighty Hornet attack uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and with Anduril on the Barracuda-500 cruise missile. Anduril also displayed its torpedo-like Copperhead-500M autonomous underwater craft, which is designed loiter then activate when recognising enemy ship propellers. This is the sort of weapon imagined by advocates of a porcupine strategy for Taiwan—warding off Chinese invasion with small and numerous weapons that are hide to find.

Unlike previous editions, the MND pavilion unveiled an unprecedented range of systems that were new or newly introduced into Taiwanese service. These included: US-made M1 Abrams main battle tanks, the first of which Taiwan received in December 2024; a variation of Taiwan’s Clouded Leopard armoured vehicle fitted with a 105 mm gun; multiple UAVs; and Thunder Tiger’s SeaShark 800 uncrewed boat.

The most striking display was the Chiang-Kong high-altitude air defence system, which featured a mobile launcher with four canisters and a modern radar.

The MND did not disclose the Chiang-Kong’s range or warhead specifications. A source from the MND declined to rule out a future surface-to-surface variant.

Such a development would align with Taiwan’s policy of all-out defence mobilisation, and expand its ability to circumvent restrictions of the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international agreement aimed at limiting proliferation of long-range weapons. Although Taipei has never formally joined, Washington imposes the regime’s rules on Taiwan’s defence industry. China, meanwhile, has sought membership of the regime while openly flouting its regulations.

The regime, established in 1987, prohibits the export of rockets and UAVs capable of carrying a 500-kilogram payload over 300 kilometres. According to both US and Taiwanese defence officials, Israel has repeatedly undercut US efforts to enforce the regime on Taiwan.

Taiwan has already mass-produced a land-attack cruise missile, though it has never displayed it publicly.

Taiwan has faced a steadily growing missile threat since Beijing fired short-range ballistic missiles into waters north and south of the island in 1996 in an attempt to influence an election.

China now fields thousands of ballistic missiles, supported by land-attack cruise missiles and swarms of advanced attack drones, forming one of the most concentrated strike-missile arsenals in the world.