Taiwan army's shelters for its M1A2T tanks slip to 2027, so crews will rely on camouflage for now

Taiwan's army will not finish the protective shelters it is building for its new M1A2T Abrams tanks this year. The Army Command Headquarters told legislators the first phase of the armoured vehicle shelter project has been pushed into 2027, and it gave no new completion date, according to a United Daily News report on 13 October 2026.

The first phase is budgeted at about NT$901.78 million and was split into two tenders, one at Dagang camp in Guishan, Taoyuan, and one at Tamsui camp near the mouth of the Tamsui River. The work was originally due to be completed by the end of 2026. The 2026 defence budget set aside about NT$404 million for it.

Why the schedule slipped

A motion from the Legislative Yuan's Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee noted that the project should have been completed within the 2026 budget year and had been extended to 2027 without an explanation, and asked the army to account for the delay and for whether the new date can be met.

In its reply, the army said contracts were supposed to be signed in March 2025. Swings in international material prices, labour shortages and a budget set too low led bidders to raise repeated objections, forcing contract revisions and fresh tender notices. That held up the tender by roughly five months and made a 2026 finish impossible, so the project year and the 2026 budget figures were revised.

The army stressed that construction at both camps began at the end of 2025 and is now on its revised track. Dagang was planned to be 18.9 percent complete and is at 19.0 percent, while Tamsui was planned and is at 30.7 percent.

The trouble is not new. In 2023 the design contractor said the original budget of about NT$900 million was not enough and that the work would need about NT$1.7 billion, which stalled the tender, and the then defence minister, Chiu Kuo-cheng, blamed shortages of labour and materials.

Hiding tanks without hardened cover

Until the shelters are ready, the army says units will use existing facilities and rely on camouflage and signature management to preserve combat power and improve the tanks' concealment and survivability against an attack from China.

Crews have already practised that approach. During an immediate combat readiness drill in June 2026, M1A2T tanks of the 584th Armored Brigade moved to tactical positions in Taoyuan in pairs, draped in camouflage nets and covered with local materials to avoid detection from the air.

The Taiwanese tanks also carry an auxiliary cooling and power system that the army has said lowers their infrared signature and helps them survive, which was highlighted at their first public live-fire event in Hsinchu in July 2025.

United Daily News pointed out that only Dagang camp, which is being prepared for an M1A2T company of the 269th Brigade, is earmarked for the new tanks in the first phase, while money has gone to Tamsui camp, which does not host the new tanks. The paper read that as a sign of how much weight the army gives to defending the Tamsui River mouth. The army has not said whether the new shelters will be blast resistant.

The delay echoes the air force's own struggle to build hardened shelters for its new fighter jets, the paper noted, and it means that for at least another year Taiwan's newest tanks will depend more on dispersal and deception than on protective cover.