The Taiwan military's top weapons development institute showed off three robot patrol dogs on Tuesday that could one day be used on Taiwan's islands in the disputed South China Sea.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which Beijing views as its own territory, has been modernizing its armed forces to better deter China, and drones have been a key focus for the defense ministry.
At a media event at the ministry, the military-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology demonstrated three different versions of a robot dog built by Ghost Robotics, a major US military supplier of four-legged robots.
The institute has mounted its own technology on the backs of the robots for the reconnaissance, surveillance, and firepower versions, the latter of which includes a gun.
Jen Kuo-kuang, deputy head of the institute's missile and rocket systems research division, said the military had expressed its need for such equipment, though it had not yet placed a formal order.
Taiwanese military seeks means and methods to defend and deter China
"In fact, the marines believe that on beaches and the coastline, including for the coast guard in Nansha and Dongsha for patrols and inspection, there is a pressing need," he said, referring to the Spratly and Pratas Islands in the South China Sea.
Taiwan has one major island in the Spratlys, called Itu Aba, and controls all of the Pratas, which are strategically located at the top end of the South China Sea and whose defense is the responsibility of the coast guard in peacetime. There is no local population on the islands apart from the coast guard presence.
China and Taiwan both claim a large part of the South China Sea, though Chinese forces generally leave Itu Aba alone.
However, Taiwan has complained of an increasing number of Chinese coast guard patrols and even drones near the Pratas.