As more than half of all drones sold in the U.S. are made by DJI, a top federal regulator wants to impose new restrictions on the best-selling drone manufacturer in the U.S., on the bases that the Chinese company poses a national security risk. The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) commissioner Brendan Carr called on regulators recently to begin processes of including the Shenzhen-based DJI on a list of companies prohibited from U.S. Universal Service Fund purchase.
Also, this announcement is in addition to a recent series of Federal actions on Chinese made drones with Congress prohibiting the Department of Defense from purchasing Chinese-made drones beginning in 2020, citing national security concerns.
Previously, the U.S. Department of Interior announced the temporary grounding of its entire fleet of approximately 800 Chinese drones for non-emergency operations In January of 2020 and in December 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce banned DJI drones. A DOI spokesperson said the grounding would be ongoing, pending a review for “the possibility of threats.” The DOI uses DJI drones in part to battle wildfires.
The DOI grounding came a year after the Department of Homeland Security warned about DJI drones, saying in a statement the “United States government has strong concerns about any technology product that takes American data into the territory of an authoritarian state that permits its intelligence services to have unfettered access to that data.”
Parnda Hedima is a Business, Aviation & Research Consultant who is a member of the National Business Aviation Association. Experimental Aircraft Association, & Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association.
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