FCC Bans Sale Of All Foreign Drones In The U.S.
The FCC has banned the sale of all new foreign-made drones and drone components in the United States, ostensibly as a matter of national security. as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said on X“Criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors have intensified their weaponization of these technologies, creating new and serious threats to our homeland.” It is absolutely true Drones are redefining modern conflict. But the question here is: If foreign drones are banned, why wouldn’t these bad guys buy American drones instead? It’s not clear how the ban solves the alleged problem.
To be clear, this is forbidden it only affects future drone models designed outside the US. In other words, everything you can buy right now will continue to be on sale. Only none of the new models will be certified, so only old foreign drones and new domestic drones will be available in the future. Take it, terrorists! However, the military and homeland security services can still request exemptions for specific models they want. Considering that many first responders use drones these days, it wouldn’t be surprising if they also received an exemption.
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Recreating the drone economy with brute force
Drones on display at the DJI store – Cheng Xin/Getty Images
The real target here does not seem to be terrorists, but the drone economy is of great importance. American domestic drone production remains relatively weak, and the Pentagon is trying to change that by simply pouring money. The Army alone wants millions of drones over the next few years. For security reasons, the Pentagon wants to buy from America, but production capacity is not currently sufficient. Promising military contracts are encouraging a domestic boom.
But one of the reasons these American companies are struggling is that they are fighting against the entrenched dominance of foreign drones, particularly from China and even more specifically DJI. This single company dominates over 70% of the entire world drone market; Their products are cheap, reliable and capable. But in this world of trade wars and tensions in Taiwan, relying so heavily on a Chinese company is a potential risk. They may also not be safe: The military banned DJI drones in 2017 for cybersecurity reasons, and they may even be sending all their information back to the Chinese government. CNN.
So it looks like the Trump administration has dealt a blow to the whole situation. Evil drones disappear! The problem, of course, is that we leave everyone who uses them in a difficult situation. Drones are a huge market Estimated to be around $6 billion in the US. As an example, drones have become is critical to agriculture in a way that cannot be cheaply replaced. The good news is that everyone can still buy the same old models; The bad news is that they’ll never get all the cool new things the rest of the world will get. To catch up, America will need to develop competitive capabilities at competitive prices.
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