The research and development of unmanned vehicles have gradually become the most prominent priority areas in the armed forces of many countries, although the development of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), unmanned surface vehicle (USV) and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) is not as vigorous as the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Currently, it can be noticed that the concepts of "manned-unmanned teaming” and “optional manning” can be widely seen in various development programs of unmanned vehicles, and these concepts are also used in the development programs of the next generation equipment. As for ground combat vehicles, not only US Army’s "next-generation combat vehicle" but also the new Main Battle Tanks launched in 2022 such as the “KF-51 Panther” launched by Rheinmetall at Eurosatory 2022 and the brand new “Abrams X” launched by General Dynamics Land Systems use the above-mentioned concepts. In fact, these concepts have also become the focus of future development of USV and UUV.

It is worth noting that although the U.S’s UGV program “Robotic Combat Vehicle” has three variations, the U.S. Army decided to focus on the smallest “RCV-L” first instead of larger “RCV-M” or even “RCV-L” with 120mm tank gun. Considering the global trends and experiences of the development of unmanned vehicles, it can be noticed that most of the unmanned systems are small vehicles with relatively simple functions. Nevertheless, the armed forces can still benefit from the support of unmanned autonomous systems for reducing manpower requirements and using the unmanned vehicle for taking over the “3Ds” (dull, dirty and dangerous) missions to reducing risk and increase sustainability. Unmanned systems are one of the most important areas and one in which Taiwan should further step up developments.