Taiwan’s National Fire Agency has put out a NT$361.5 million tender, about US$11 million, for drone sets that search rough terrain. The notice went up on the government’s procurement site on 6 October, and bids close on 27 October.
It is a joint supply contract for 2026 to 2028, which other agencies can order from once it is awarded. The agency will pick more than one supplier on best value, and each order must arrive within 150 days. The notice gives no quantity or specifications; those sit in the tender documents.
The agency kept the tender outside the WTO procurement agreement on national-security grounds and flagged it as a national-security purchase. The notice itself does not say whether Chinese drones or parts are barred. It links the buy to the government’s 2025-2030 plan for its uncrewed-vehicle industry.
Taiwan’s fire services have been short of drones since a 2020 ban on government purchases of Chinese-brand information and communications products. In August 2024 Liao Wei-hsiang, a Kuomintang legislator, said fire services had shelved 92 DJI drones under that ban. Citing fire agency figures, he said the agency planned NT$260 million for 371 replacements, and that non-DJI drones were slow and costly to repair.
The fire agency’s tender is one of 28 open drone tenders on the procurement site this week, worth NT$1.25 billion together, about US$39 million. The Coast Guard’s NT$782.7 million tender for medium-range drones, which closes on 9 November, is the largest. The two make up more than 90 percent of the total.
The rest are small. The Investigation Bureau wants small multirotor drones for NT$20 million, the Army training drones that drop payloads for NT$8.8 million, and the Navy a lot of handheld counter-drone jammers for NT$3.8 million. The Air Force is fencing off a drone area at its Hualien base with razor wire, for NT$30.3 million.
Only the two Coast Guard notices bar Chinese companies and companies with Chinese capital outright. The defence ministry’s notices bar suppliers that its weapons institute has blacklisted for delivering goods from mainland China. At least 12 of the 28 tenders are repeats after an earlier round failed.
The fire agency opens its bids on 28 October.
