Taiwan's Volcano minelayers to arrive in a single batch next year as training mines come first

The United States will deliver all 14 Volcano vehicle-launched mine-laying systems ordered by Taiwan's army in a single shipment in 2027, Taiwanese media reported on Wednesday, 7 October, while the army has already contracted for inert training mines that are due to reach Taiwan before the end of this year.

According to the Liberty Times, the earlier plan to hand over the systems in batches has been dropped after coordination between the defence ministry and the US side, and the systems will instead be produced in one run. Supporting equipment and logistics facilities will continue to be funded and delivered through the end of 2029. The paper attributed the earlier slippage to supply chain and administrative delays on the US side. China Times reported the same single-shipment arrangement, citing unnamed sources.

Training mines come first

A contract award notice published on the government e-procurement system on Wednesday shows that the army signed a NT$226.45 million contract for training mines through Taiwan's military representative office in the United States, the Liberty Times reported. The contract took effect on 10 September and runs until 15 December 2029, so that engineer units can practise handling the system before the launchers arrive.

The paper said the training rounds look and function like the real canisters but carry no explosive payload. The 2022 US sale notification listed M88 practice canisters and M89 training munitions among the items requested, alongside M87A1 anti-tank munitions and M977A4 heavy trucks to carry the launchers.

Later than earlier plans

The new timetable is a year later than the schedule cited in earlier reporting. In September 2024 a defence official said all 14 systems would arrive in 2026 rather than in two batches, and in February this year the Liberty Times, citing the ministry's budget documents, listed the Volcano systems among US-made equipment due to be delivered during 2026.

The US State Department approved the possible sale on 28 December 2022 at an estimated 180 million US dollars, with Northrop Grumman named as principal contractor for the mine canisters and Oshkosh for the trucks. The Taiwan-US purchase agreement, worth NT$4.54 billion, took effect on 21 June 2023 with completion set for the end of 2029, CNA reported at the time. China Times noted that the gap between the US estimate and the ministry's contract value suggests the items or quantities were adjusted.

How the army plans to use them

The systems are earmarked for the combat engineer groups of the 6th, 8th and 10th Army Corps, which cover the north, centre and south of Taiwan proper. The army has said the mines will not be laid in advance; instead, engineers would lay them rapidly on beaches and routes once an enemy's main landing sites have been identified.

Each launcher can scatter 960 mines across an area about 1,100 metres long and 120 metres wide in four to 12 minutes, and the mines can be set to self-destruct after four hours, 48 hours or 15 days, according to the Liberty Times. The army has stressed that Taiwan is buying anti-vehicle mines rather than anti-personnel mines and that the surface-laid munitions are designed to be easy to identify and recover, in response to concerns that the purchase could leave the island littered with mines.

The Liberty Times added that although the US Army is testing an uncrewed version of the Volcano launcher at home, the 14 systems bought by Taiwan remain crewed vehicles.