Do you think it is possible to set up a mechanism for the public to fund Taiwanese-based defense R&D projects?
The goal is to take funding from a wide variety of sources, disburse it to Taiwanese-based researchers according to milestones and independent review. Effectively it is to facilitate entrepreneurship in support of Taiwan’s national defense, and to allow people with a few dollars spare to fund meaningful projects.
There may even be a later TRL funding body to assist in scale-up and production of successful projects. Sponsors are kept insulated from the researchers, and vice-versa. The sponsors have a general idea what project they are funding, e.g. “Drone defense” plus a few sentences in summary.
There are four players here: the public, the administration, a review & escrow committee and the research entity.
The public: Open really to any source - money is money. Although there may be implications if a citizen of a foreign country funds defense research in another country.
Administration: Reviews the applicable laws, IP ownership, sale & transfer of IP to larger defense manufacturers.
Review & escrow committee: A peer-review panel consisting of scientists, engineers and Taiwanese military personnel. Their job is to review if a project is feasible before contracts are issued, to match military needs to projects and vice versa, to monitor progress of the project against deliverables and to approve disbursement of funds.
The research entity: may be an individual, SME, university, etc. Must be Taiwan-based. Subject to vetting but should be as open as possible to foreign nationals and dual citizens resident in Taiwan.
sorry…will work about as much as all that telethon-collected money and clothes/sleeping bag donations that are set up any time there’s a big quake on the island
I like the idea, but it seems very impractical. Taiwan politics or government or military are not looking for this type of help. I do not think you can force it down their throat.
seriously you can’t crowdfund defense, it’s all government to government. Also several countries have vested interest to see Taiwan not become a Chinese special administrative area, like Japan and Korea and the US. They’ll give Taiwan whatever they need.
Mostly old junks the US don’t use anymore but still…
DARPA for example fund, and have preference for SMEs and minority/female enterprises to encourage entrepreneurship in the defense realm.
Of course in this case there is one gatekeeper for funds whereas for crowd-funded projects the money comes from any source. If the money is given as a grant then there will probably be less red tape than if individuals get shares in a prospective start-up; all sorts of conflict of interest issues would arise.
Does the NCSIST work with Taiwan-based foreigners?
They don’t seem to issue calls for proposals as well. Everything is done in-house?
There is some potential for developing and weaponizing drones made from cheap hardware. I mean if Turkey and Iran can create a new export product from this then Taiwan surely can. And since China has to come either by air or boat, having thousands and thousands of cheap throw-away attack or defender drones might be a very cost-effective technique.
Ultimately, a true Chinese invasion force that can take and hold territory, and impose their will over a protracted time, must come by sea for logistical and transport of heavy vehicles and equipment.
Anti-ship missiles tend to be much larger than anti-tank missiles, and drones which can carry the former are rare. Anti-ship missiles are intended to make a large hole that fills the ship with water quickly, or to cause extensive explosive damage that the ship is crippled. Anti-tank missiles make small holes via a hypersonic shaped charge jet, which hopefully intersects with the tank’s ammunition and starts cooking them off. Anti-tank missiles would be largely ineffective against full sized ships and landing craft.
Take a look at uavfactory for a bootstrapped company that developed their own products and is having some success selling around the world. Anduril is privately funded (with much deeper pockets) and just raised $1B+ at a $8B valuation.
