*If you want to know my position on the non-ban and or just want to poach my solutions, scroll down now.
Lots of braying on the boards; without them Chinese Communist Party subsidized drones
New China Life Insurance VC Bling Oh, golly, I’ll be out of business. Or, as the heartstring tuggers like to frame it, we won’t be able to save lives or any of the other applications we as a community have known about for at least fifty-plus years. It all loosely translates to I’ll be out of pushbutton relevance.
If you listen to the influencers, you’ll be thinking those meanies over at Skydio are lobbying to take my drone stick-touching job away. While it is true that Skydio is doing some lobbying, DJI is outspending them by huge margins. If that doesn’t give you pause, the notion that Skydio is a credible threat to DJI should. Yet, few voice concerns about the anti-American DJI devotee subpar attack propaganda. Out of desperation and lack of conscience, the lowlife shill will stoop to racism while shielding the totalitarian
human rights-abusing Winnie the Pooh, banning Chinese Communist Party from besmirchment.
Skydio does make an excellent low-hanging scapegoat for the dummies. However, somebody could make a solid case for an American company to lobby its government, especially in a dysfunctional regulated industry. And no, I am not only talking about the airspace integration effort but also DoD procurement.
Whatever the case, Skydio leadership’s recent moves echo the same VC visionary-inspired decisions that brought 3DR down like a rock, and they had free IP.
You want a safe and easy low-IQ Scooby-Doo answer regarding who we can pin the blame on. The blame for this economic and national security issue is directly attributable to the abysmal FAA airspace integration debacle. The dual-use crowd is paying a premium to fly in drone prisons, and there are few paths to market for new designs.
In case you were wondering, statements like these will get you muted or even possibly hung up on during the Drone Safety Team meeting call. Apparently, those shilling for the Chinese still get the red carpet treatment.
Drone Safety Team meeting takeaway as one attended aptly surmised it, “Turd in the punch bowl!”
The other culprit has lots of money, high praise for their products, and corporate credibility lower than a veritable snake’s belly. Who is it, you ask? Why it is none other than NDAA darling and shallow lie master’s in training, DJI. How can you blame them?
They make bloody good drones.
DJI should have just come clean instead of trying that political reeducation camp stuff on Western audiences. It’s like this: The laws in China mandate X, Y, and Z. We comply with the regulations to keep the New China Life Insurance Company good-time CC Party sovereign fund investment money rolling in and our kidneys, okay?
As an aside, and as a public service, if you’re going to collect all of that good flight data, why not use it to prove to the various CAAs that consumer drones are safe? They might open the flight envelope for the rest of us. You say you don’t want our data, but we do.
Anyway, I’ll elaborate on the economic security issue first. The DJI “experts” are cobbling together a conspiracy with Skydio at the helm. Lest we forget, Skydio isn’t even in the commercial or hobby drone space dominated by DJI. Skydio is in the military and government space. And before you get yourself wrapped around the axle, I am not on the Skydio, Teal, Brinc, or anyone else’s dole. I am only considering the USA warfighter national security and domestic economic viability in the aerospace sector, all without shaking anyone down.
Advice for the government.
Be open-minded. Don’t only emulate the CCP/PRC when it comes to totalitarianism and controlling a weak-minded population. Invest in industries that will result in your country’s dominance on the world stage. Give your aviation authority the leeway to implement rules and policies allowing dual-use military technology and capabilities by products from the commercial sector. Heck, that might even serve as a shot in the arm for a domestic aerospace industry trying to get the AAM thing off the Vertiport.
Why hold the bag of broken dreams; head over to the PRC website, as they have a whole mess of initiatives they are working on to dominate the planet. I am not suggesting we go nuts and suspend human rights, environmental, or labor laws. Poke around; there’s a lot to work with.
https://english.www.gov.cn/2016special/madeinchina2025/
DoD –
The twentieth-century laurel riding has got to stop. There is a lot of hand-wringing, as
the geopolitical situation is not pretty. Finding new solutions while hamstrung by
outdated procurement models is a challenging task. We all know viable aerospace
solutions don’t come cheap. Start throwing money at the problem, not at the legacy
OEMs. Oh, and you had better get the C-UAS thing moving, or our troops will be
running around the tank chased down by $450 FPV drones.
FAA
We should have provisions for companies building and end-users employing domestically produced systems to get front-of-the-line service for arbitrary and capricious waivers and exemptions. Employing the waiver and exemption model at this point smacks of a pay-to-play model used in developing countries, so throw those of us who can’t afford lobbyists a bone. Regulation and policy are, in this case, only put in place to lock out competition, and I am concerned that we are beyond any failsafe point.
Who did a lot of the lobbying and assisted with the rulemaking and policy?
Yes, it was DJI. They lobbied for and got leadership slots and backroom deals for FAA rulemaking and policy efforts. It was a very cozy relationship indeed—such a comfortable relationship that Classified DoD documents were purportedly shared with representatives of a CCP/PRC-funded company. Any rules and policies enacted with participation from DJI, their lobbyists, or companies they were in partnership with should be audited.
I do not favor a complete ban on DJI, Autel, or any other Chinese drone company, regardless of investment from the CCP/PRC. We should not be naive about the public aims and goals of a totalitarian class A adversary. If you want to take selfies, make movies and entertainment, sell real estate, estimate fencing jobs, fight forest fires, sell 4K TV sets, etc., go for it. Critical infrastructure, police investigations gather evidence, military or national security, etc., not so much.
In my estimation, the current or evolving scheme is almost worthless and will only hurt Anzu, DJI, and the New China Life Insurance Company’s potential ROI.
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Well it’s off to the rodeo for DJI, this line that was included is the one that will interest folks most. Mandates the DoD to investigate Communist Chinese drone companies for inclusion on the Chinese Military Company list and places DJI on the FCC’s Covered List.
The NDAA passed today, 217-199
If it is rubber stamped by the Senate the FCC will be able to make full use of RID to track down transgressors and fine them I should imagine. A great revenue stream.
It is being reported in enthusiasts groups the the FCC cannot make any changes to issued approvals, in the case of the covered list they can.
I am far more afraid of radio regulators than aviation, worldwide. The have special powers, very special powers.
It’s a couple of hours until dawn on a new era in US drone proliferation.
Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO), Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today applauded House passage of the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act:
“Our world is in a dangerous place with China, Russia, and Iran, the new axis of evil, seeking to consolidate power and influence worldwide. A strong national defense will deter authoritarians and help us fight back against these destabilizing regimes and for our fundamental freedoms. Today’s NDAA bolsters our national security not just abroad, but here at home on our southern border as well. This legislation gives our troops a pay raise to ensure they have the support they need while fighting to defend our nation. The NDAA will provide increased Congressional oversight of the Department of Defense so we can ensure your tax dollars are spent efficiently and effectively.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a bipartisan group of senators in urging the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to reevaluate the risks associated with the use of drones manufactured by Shenzhen DJI Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (DJI), a company with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In 2022, DJI was officially identified as a “Chinese military company” by the Department of Defense following several warnings about its risks, including a 2017 intelligence bulletin warning that DJI was likely providing sensitive U.S. infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government. Despite this action, the use of DJI drones remains common throughout the country. In 2021, it was reported that DJI controlled almost 90% of the consumer drone market in North America and over 70% of the industrial market. And in 2019, it was reported that 73% of public safety organizations are flying the company’s aircraft.
“[T]he widespread use of DJI drones to inspect critical infrastructure allows the CCP to develop a richly detailed, regularly updated picture of our nation’s pipelines, railways, power generation facilities, and waterways,” the senators wrote in a letter to CISA Director Jen Easterly. “This sensitive information on the layout, operation, and maintenance of U.S. critical infrastructure could better enable targeting efforts in the event of conflict.”
CISA has previously taken action to warn against the purchase and use of DJI aircrafts. In 2019, CISA published an “industry alert” underscoring the federal government’s “strong concerns” with Chinese drones and warning entities to be “cautious” in purchasing them. However, since this alert more information regarding the severity of the threat has come to light, and the senators are asking for a complete analysis of the security risks posed by DJI drones to be conducted and made publicly available.
In addition to Sens. Warner and Blackburn, the letter was signed by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Thune (R-SD) Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Rick Scott (R-FL), Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Todd Young (R-IN), JD Vance (R-OH), Ted Budd (R-NC), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Braun (R-IN), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Jerry Moran (R-KS).
Sen. Warner is a strong supporter of the domestic production of unmanned systems, including driverless cars, drones, and unmanned maritime vehicles. Earlier this year, he introduced the Increasing Competitiveness for American Drones Act, legislation that will clear the way for drones to be used for commercial transport of goods across the country. As Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he has led efforts in Congress to shore up U.S. national and cybersecurity against hostile foreign governments through unmanned air systems. Last month, Sen. Warner introduced legislation to prohibit the federal government from purchasing drones manufactured in countries identified as national security threats, such as the People’s Republic of China.
A copy of the letter can be found here and below.
Dear Director Easterly:
We write today regarding the cybersecurity risks posed by the widespread use of drones manufactured by Shenzhen DJI Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. (“DJI”) to operators of critical infrastructure and state and local law enforcement in the United States. In short, we believe that given the company’s identified connections to the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”), the use of its drones in such sensitive contexts may present an unacceptable security vulnerability. We ask that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”) evaluate this concern and make the results of its evaluation available to the public through the National Cyber Awareness System.
China’s efforts to modernize the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army (“PLA”), including through their “Military-Civil Fusion” strategy – which systematically blurs the lines between PLA and civilian science and technology research and development efforts – are well documented. In October 2022, the Department of Defense identified DJI as a “Chinese military company” operating in the U.S. under Section 1260H of the William M. (“Mac”) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. Identification of this relationship between DJI and the PLA suggests a range of risks to U.S. operators of the technology, including that sensitive information or data could wind up in PLA hands. Indeed, Huawei, another entity identified under Section 1260H, has been credibly accused by the Department of Justice of misappropriating intellectual property and trade secret information from U.S. companies.
Yet, despite these risks, the use of DJI drones remains widespread throughout the U.S. In 2021, it was reported that DJI controlled almost 90% of the consumer market in North America and over 70% of the industrial market. And in 2019, it was reported that 73% of public safety operations are flown by the company’s aircraft. As a result, the CCP may have access to a variety of proprietary information. For example, a 2017 Department of Homeland Security assessment warned that Chinese companies had used grape production information gathered by a DJI drone purchased by a California wine producer to inform their own land purchasing decisions. Even worse, the widespread use of DJI drones to inspect critical infrastructure allows the CCP to develop a richly detailed, regularly updated picture of our nation’s pipelines, railways, power generation facilities, and waterways. This sensitive information on the layout, operation, and maintenance of U.S. critical infrastructure could better enable targeting efforts in the event of conflict.
We appreciate that CISA has addressed this risk in the past, most notably in a 2019 “Industry Alert,” stating the federal government’s “strong concerns” with Chinese drones and warning entities to be “cautious” in purchasing them. However, over the past four years more information regarding the scope of the problem has become available—including the official identification of DJI as a Chinese military company by the Department of Defense.
We therefore ask that CISA revisit its analysis of the security risks posed by the use of DJI-manufactured drones and release the results of that analysis publicly through the National Cyber Awareness System.
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