Taichung picks two drone test fields as the army declines to share its Tianshan training ground

Taichung has settled on two sites for testing drones built by companies in central Taiwan, after a meeting on 27 October that brought together the city government, the defence ministry, the army and the transport and economic ministries. The army said it could not open its own Tianshan training ground in Dali to industry for now, according to reports by the United Daily News, NOWnews and EBC.

The meeting was called by the city's economic development bureau and legislator Yang Chiung-ying. Officials from the defence ministry's training office, army headquarters and the army's 10th Corps took part, along with the civil aviation authority, the Water Resources Agency and representatives of seven companies, among them the aircraft maker AIDC, EBC reported.

Two sites chosen

Small and medium drones of up to 25 kilograms are to be tested at Kuang Hua Vocational High School in Taiping, which already has a temporary runway of 110 metres. The city plans to extend it to 200 metres. Larger fixed-wing drones would fly from public riverside land beside the Wu River in Wuri, currently used by a private light aviation club, where a new 250-metre runway is being considered at an early estimated cost of about NT$10 million, NOWnews and the United Daily News reported.

Transport ministry and civil aviation officials said both sites lie in low-level green zones below 400 feet and are in principle allowed under the rules, while the river authority said it was open to test flights on the riverside land, NOWnews reported. The transport ministry also said it does not currently fund the building of test fields, according to the United Daily News.

The army keeps its training ground

The city had listed six candidate sites, including the army's Tianshan training ground in Dali. The bureau's director, Chang Feng-yuan, noted that many drone companies in central Taiwan work with the defence ministry and asked whether the ground could be shared in future. The army replied that the area is heavily used for other training and that its own drone tests there involve only vertical take-off, as it has no runway, the United Daily News reported.

Major General Wang Chun-chin, chief of staff of the 10th Corps, said the ground is used for driver training on tanks, artillery and other vehicles and for urban combat training, so releasing it for shared use would be difficult, NOWnews reported. The site was left off the priority list.

Why the industry wants local fields

Companies at the meeting said a lack of suitable fields in central Taiwan forces them to take medium, large and specialised drones to Chiayi or Pingtung for testing, which adds cost and slows development. The civil aviation authority said the national plan currently covers 18 small and medium test fields and two large ones, at Chiayi's Shuishang airport and Hengchun airport in Pingtung. Taichung wants that expanded to 19 small and medium fields and three large ones.

Yang said drone technology now reaches from farming and disaster inspection to national defence, and that central Taiwan has the research and manufacturing base but no compliant test site nearby, NOWnews reported. The next step is a joint site inspection by central and local officials.

The push follows a cabinet decision in September to set up a national drone testing laboratory at the Bureau of Standards office in Taichung, budgeted at about NT$30 million over three years and due to be completed in 2029. At the time the city said it also wanted test fields for larger drones and for electronic warfare testing. Taichung has around 50 uncrewed vehicle companies, the city said then.