Taiwan imported 291 US suicide drones in 2025, SIPRI data shows
Global Drone Transfers Driven by Wartime Demand
Modern combat relies heavily on unmanned aerial systems. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine accelerated cross-border military drone transfers worldwide. SIPRI tracked a total of 16,822 military drones transferred internationally between 2022 and 2025. Ukraine and Russia dominated these acquisitions. Ukraine took the top spot by receiving 8,664 drones, which accounted for 51.5 percent of the global total. Russia followed in second place with 6,720 drones, making up 39.9 percent of the transfers. Together, the two warring nations accounted for more than 91 percent of all recorded global military drone transfers during those four years.
US and Iran Supply Drones to Ukraine and Russia
Supply chains for these imports diverge sharply between Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine sourced 83 percent of its imported military drones directly from the United States. Russia relied predominantly on Iran for the supply of Shahed-136 suicide drones, though Moscow subsequently expanded domestic manufacturing to produce its own variant, known as the Geran-2. Taiwan’s imports consist of 291 US-made suicide drones received in 2025. That figure represents 1.7 percent of the global transfer total, making Taiwan the only importer outside of the Russia-Ukraine war zone to exceed 200 units during the monitored timeframe. South Korea ranked fourth with 190 drones, Azerbaijan fifth with 154, India sixth with 119, Georgia seventh with 100, Albania eighth with 56, and Hungary and Lithuania tied for ninth with 50 units each.
Scope and Limits of International Statistics
The SIPRI database focuses primarily on large military-grade UAVs and loitering munitions. Smaller first-person view (FPV) drones and commercially modified quadcopters fall largely outside the scope of these official transfer tracking figures. The dataset captures government-to-government military aid and local production under foreign license rather than direct commercial purchases alone. The actual volume of operational drones deployed globally exceeds the recorded transfer numbers. The United Kingdom delivered more than 85,000 small military drones to Ukraine within a six-month window in 2025. Ukraine’s domestic defense manufacturing sector maintains the capacity to produce more than eight million FPV drones annually.
Taiwan Plans to Deploy 200,000 Drones
Taiwan has prioritized expanding its unmanned aerial capabilities. Influenced by operational lessons from the conflict in Ukraine, the government formulated plans to deploy up to 200,000 drones over the coming decade. The 291 units recorded by SIPRI reflect only a fraction of the broader acquisition and domestic manufacturing framework that defense planners intend to implement.
