President Lai visits Taipei defense expo, speaks with U.S. defense firms

Taipei, Sept. 19 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) on Friday visited the 2025 Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition (TADTE), where he toured booths of local and foreign defense companies, including U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which manufactures F-16 fighter jets for Taiwan.

●Weapons hot: Taipei defense expo showcases Taiwan's latest weaponry, drones

At the Nangang Exhibition Center, Lai visited the Defense Industry Pavilion and the Aerospace Industry Pavilion, where he was briefed on drone systems and newly developed counter-drone technologies by Taiwanese firms.

He also visited exhibits by the Taiwan Space Agency and a booth showcasing military wargaming systems, before heading to the sections featuring exhibitors from the United States and the Czech Republic.

During his stops at booths set up by U.S. defense and aerospace companies Shield AI, Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp., Lai spoke briefly with representatives from the two companies and received product briefings.

Lockheed Martin manufactures Taiwan's Air Force F-16 fighters, while Shield AI is partnering with Taiwan's fighter jet developer Aerospace Industrial Development Corp. (AIDC) to develop an advanced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ecosystem.

Lai spent about an hour touring the Ministry of National Defense pavilion, where he tried several training simulators and was briefed on one of the highlights of this year's exhibition, the enhanced version of the Tien Kung III surface-to-air missile system.

The showing marked the first public display of the enhanced Tien Kung III, including the missile, its launcher and associated radar.

As a ground-based midcourse defense system, the enhanced Tien Kung III is designed to counter Chinese tactical ballistic missiles, according to Lu Chien-sheng (盧健勝), deputy head of the Sky Bow (Tien Kung) program under the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology.

During his 90-minute visit to TADTE, Lai did not deliver public remarks, speaking only with exhibitors and senior officials overseeing security matters, including National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) and Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄).

Friday marked the second day of the three-day event, with many exhibitors stepping up efforts to seek partnerships and secure orders before the biennial exhibition closes.

AIDC announced Friday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. geospatial intelligence company Maxar Intelligence to cooperate on vision-based positioning and 3D geospatial data, enabling drones to operate accurately in GPS-denied environments.

Maxar's technologies can enhance the reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and tactical autonomy capabilities of drones manufactured in Taiwan, according to AIDC.