I learned a lot from this story about how drones are being used and how that usage may come to an abrupt end as Chinese technology is increasingly limited by law.
Russell Hedrick, a North Carolina farmer, flies drones to spray fertilizers on his corn, soybean and wheat fields at a fraction of what it would cost him to use a conventional ground spreader.
As a volunteer rescuer, Hedrick uses thermal drones to search for people trapped by mudslides and cargo drones to send water and baby formula to those who are stranded — something he did after Hurricane Helene.
Now he is fretting that one day he will have to ground his drone fleet. Most commercial drones sold in the United States, including those used by Hedrick, are made in China. They have become a target of U.S. lawmakers, who see the dominance of Chinese drones not only as an espionage threat but as a commercial threat because they make it nearly impossible for American manufacturers to compete.
It’s another front in the U.S.-China economic and technological competition that’s likely to intensify with the return to the White House in January of Republican Donald Trump, who has promised to get tough on China.
Washington has already placed restrictions on Chinese telecommunications companies and imposed high tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as the U.S. competes with China in semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other areas.
A defense bill that Congress passed on Dec. 18 includes a clause to stop two Chinese companies from selling new drones in the U.S. if a review finds they pose “an unacceptable risk” to American national security. Congress has banned federal agencies from acquiring Chinese drones, with some exceptions, and several states have barred publicly funded programs from using or procuring Chinese drones.
A broader ban is worrisome for Americans for whom drones have become a part of their lives and work. It could disrupt wide-ranging operations, from law enforcement to mapping and filmmaking that drone operators say are viable because of the low cost and high performance of the Chinese drones. American-made drones just aren’t comparable, they say.
There’s a video embedded in the story that shows Hedrick using his drone, which costs $35K; land-based farm equipment for the same tasks would cost $250K. I get the concerns about security, though it seems there’s a lack of specificity about what exactly the threats are, but that’s asking a lot of people trying to make a living. A big part of the problem is that drones built by US-based companies aren’t as good while also being more expensive. There are other concerns as well.
Michael Robbins, president and chief executive officer of AUVSI, an advocacy group for unmanned vehicles such as drones, opposes an immediate ban. Instead, his group has urged the government to support the U.S. drone-making industry through investment so it can catch up with its Chinese competitors in both capability and cost.
He applauds Congress for addressing some of the issues in the 2025 defense budget, including promoting investment in autonomous technology and working to develop a secure supply chain for U.S. drone manufacturing.
That vulnerability was clear earlier this year when Beijing sanctioned the U.S. drone maker Skydio, forcing it to ration its batteries sourced from China.
“This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers,” wrote Adam Bry, chief executive officer of Skydio.
Citing security interests, China has restricted exports to the U.S. of drone parts, including motors, flight controllers and imaging equipment.
John Goodson, CEO of Darkhive, a San Antonio-based drone maker, said a ban would not stop Chinese drone makers from selling their products elsewhere in the world but could hurt U.S. drone companies that rely on China for parts.
For now, it remains unrealistic to ban Chinese drones when there are few comparable products, said Faine Greenwood, a drone enthusiast who writes extensively about drones. “If we ban the Chinese drones, we knock out many amazing things we do.”
Investing in our own drone-making industry, which is basically China’s strategy for manufacturing, would be beneficial but would also take years to develop and leave us in the lurch in the meantime. Not clear how we bridge that gap.
The leading Chinese drone maker is a company called DJI, and it already faces restrictions in the US.
DJI’s drones have been used by first responders to locate disaster victims, mappers to survey roads and utility lines, mosquito control officers to reach swarms of larvae, and filmmakers to capture aerial footage. Police use them to help prevent crime and find missing people.
Hedrick, the North Carolina farmer, mobilized drone search efforts as a volunteer after Helene hit. On the first night, he and his teammates located 150 stranded people. When they could not be immediately rescued, Hedrick said his team used DJI cargo drones to send in supplies.
“I am not going to say I won’t love to have U.S. drones, but I don’t see the American drones as anywhere close to the DJI drones in terms of reliability, ease of use, and just the user-friendly software,” Hedrick said. “The U.S. drones are not as good as the DJI ones but cost twice as much.”
[…]
Several states have already restricted the use of Chinese drones. In Tennessee, public agencies, including police and fire departments, are no longer allowed to purchase DJI drones.
That caused a headache for Capt. Chris Lowe of the Kingsport Fire Department. After his department lost a DJI Mavic Pro drone, he was quoted $5,000 for a replacement from an approved list of drones, when another DJI Mavic Pro would cost $1,000 to $1,500.
“Basically it would be a DJI clone but doesn’t have all the capabilities,” Lowe said of the alternative. Without any state assistance, he said he would either forgo a new drone or tighten the belt in equipment maintenance elsewhere. He said the department has used drones to scope out wildfires, chemical leaks and disaster scenes and to search for missing people. “It’s about life and death,” he said.
In Wimberley, Texas, Gene Robinson has used high-resolution drone images to analyze differences in vegetation to discover buried bodies. He said he helped police find a victim’s buried arm, making prosecution possible. Robinson doesn’t think there’s a viable alternative to the DJI drone he uses.
He said his project at Texas State University’s Forensic Anthropology Center would be “deader than a doornail” if there’s a national ban on Chinese-made drones.
At the Interior Department, the policy against foreign-made drones has hamstrung its drone operations, resulting in the “loss of opportunities to collect data on landscape, natural and cultural resources, wildlife and infrastructure,” according to a September report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Here’s more on that Texas State program, which received a $275K federal grant in 2020 to kick it off. State legislatures have moved to follow in the feds’ path, with Florida leading the way. The Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill in 2023 that would have banned government entities from using DJI drones and other tech that is subject to existing federal restrictions; it didn’t receive a hearing in the House, but I’d say it has decent prospects this session. That’s a potential headache for various local law enforcement agencies, if indeed such a bill makes it through.
I don’t have any answers here, and I don’t know enough to assess the threat that these bans purport to mitigate. I’m just passing along my newfound awareness of this issue, which isn’t high on the radar to begin with. We’ll see if a bill like SB541 is able to run the gauntlet this time around. NBC News has more.