Chinese Drone Ban Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Drone usage in agriculture continues to increase, but legislation making its way through Congress seeks to ban Chinese-made drones due to the risks for farmers and ranchers.
Arthur Erickson, CEO of U.S. drone manufacturer Hylio (HE-lee-o), gives us some historical context …
ERICKSON … “Basically, back in 2017, so already about 7 years ago, the Department of Homeland Security put out a memo stating that they had strong reason to believe that DJI drones were sending critical information back to the Chinese government that could be used to undermine U.S. national security in various ways. And they also actually made an argument back then too that DGI was dangerous for using monopolistic practices and undermining the U.S. drone market by you know price dumping and things of that nature.”
Then, Erickson says the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019 effectively banned government use of Chinese-made drones …
ERICKSON … “Now, fast forward to 2024, that ban and those concerns have grown even further. And so, there are calls from a lot of people to ban Chinese drones use outright. So, not just in the public sector, but also the private sector here in the states.”
Erickson says it was proposed by New York Representative Elise Stefanik …
ERICKSON … “And what it will do basically 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 would not be allowed to have FCC authorization to operate on the frequencies and communications channels in our country.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the banning of Chinese-made drones.
