2018 US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference

The US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference 2018 was held on October 28-30, 2018 in Annapolis, Maryland. This was the seventeenth annual event in a series of ongoing conferences addressing the future of U.S. defense cooperation with Taiwan, the defense procurement process, and Taiwan’s defense and national security needs.

The conference opened with a discussion on Taiwan’s role in the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, and look at how Taiwan can increase regional engagement on defense and national security issues. We then discussed Taiwan’s Overall Defense Concept (ODC) and current operational and tactical thinking, examining how Taiwan can continue to develop its capabilities in order to meet its existing and future defense needs. The third session looked at ODC implementation across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains, and how companies can play a role in supporting this implementation. The last two sessions looked first at offsets under Taiwan’s Industrial Cooperation Program, and pivoted to discuss Taiwan’s industrial security in the defense sector – including personnel security issues, digital security, as well as trade secrets and IP protection.

Keynote speakers included senior representatives from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense and from the U.S. government.

Jim Moriarty AIT Keynote Intro
Vice Minister Chang MND Keynote
David Helvey DOD Keynote

Conference sessions at the US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference feature a moderator and several speakers on the panel, and some sessions may include additional commentators. Each speaker gives a short presentation on the session topic from his or her own viewpoint and expertise. Those presentations are then followed by a moderator-led discussion among the panelists, as well as a moderator-driven question and answer period with the attendees. This format offers the maximum amount of time for exchanges among the panelists, as well as between the panel and the audience, allowing the sessions to become a forum for substantial and valuable interaction and discussion