Drones: The Good, The Bad, The Spooky
With California Ag Today, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
Drone usage in agriculture has continued to increase, with over three million acres sprayed by these unmanned aircraft in 2023 alone. However, legislation making its way through Congress seeks to effectively ban Chinese-made DJI drones in the U.S. due to the security risks.
This is an ongoing storyline. Artur Erickson, CEO of U.S. drone manufacturer Hylio, has the background starting with activity from 2017…
“The Department of Homeland Security put out a memo stating that they had strong reason to believe DJI drones were sending critical information back to the Chinese government that could be used to undermine U.S. national security."
At that point some seven years ago, they also said the federal government in the U.S. should not use any more of this type of drone because of these security reasons.
“That ban and those concerns have grown even further and so there are calls from a lot of people to ban Chinese drone use outright, so not just in the public sector but also in the private sector here in the state.”
Insert legislation…
"What it will do is make DJI – the largest drone manufacturer in the world, a Chinese-based company – into a covered entity as defined by the government which means that they are not allowed to have FCC authorization to operate on the frequencies and communication channels in our country. So all the drones would basically become paperweights.”
The Countering CCP Drones Act moved through the House back in May as part of the National Defense Authorization Act and is awaiting action in the Senate.
