[Source: Reuters]

The Taiwan military’s top weapons development institute showed off on Tuesday three robot patrol dogs 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 modernising its armed forces to better deter China, and drones have been a key focus for the defence 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 U.S. military supplier ​of four-legged robots.

The institute has mounted its own technology on the back of ​the robots for the reconnaissance, surveillance and firepower versions, the latter of which includes a gun on its back.

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.

“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, while it controls all of the Pratas, which are strategically located at the top end ​of the South China Sea and whose defence 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.