Taiwan's defense ministry says it's planning to phase out its aging CM-12 tanks while replacing them with unmanned drones. Defense minister Wellington Koo says the military is shifting toward a “tech over manpower” strategy to implement lessons learned from the war in Ukraine.
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00:00Taiwan's military says it will start phasing out older tanks, shifting those resources
00:05to war drones instead.
00:07Defense Minister Wellington Ku says the military will begin retiring the CM-12 main battle
00:12tank in 2026.
00:15The move is part of a broader effort to modernize Taiwan's armed forces and reduce maintenance
00:20costs.
00:21It also comes as the military increasingly turns towards drones to cut reliance on manpower.
00:27Other experts have long considered the CM-12 obsolete.
00:31Going forward, Taiwan will rely more heavily on the newer U.S.-made M1 Abrams and upgraded
00:37M60 tanks.