The world’s largest drone manufacturer, Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), will have another year to convince US defense agencies that its products do not pose a national security threat to the US.
The Chinese company faced an immediate ban on the use of its products if the US Senate had included language from the Counting CCP Drones Act, which passed the House in September, in its final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. But the Senate chose to give DJI and Autel Robotics, another Chinese drone maker, a temporary waiver.
The NDAA, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Senate on Wednesday, now awaits President Joe Biden’s signature. It includes a provision directing “appropriate national security agencies” to inspect DJI and Autel products-including drones and any other communication or video surveillance equipment-determining whether they pose a risk to the US
The agency has one year from the enactment of the NDAA to make its decision. If it determines that the companies’ products are dangerous, the Federal Communications Commission will be required to place those products on the so-called consolidated list, which prohibits the sale and purchase of certain devices. Owners of DJI and Autel products will still be able to use devices they purchased before the companies were added to the covered list.
With the exception of Kaspersky Labs in Russia, all the devices currently on the covered list come from major Chinese companies, such as Huawei, ZTE Corporation, Hytera Communications, Hikvision, Dahua Technology, China Mobile International, China Telecom Americas Corporation, Pacific Networks. Corporation, and China Unicom Americas.
In a blog post, DJI said it was good news that the Anti-CCP Drone Act was not included in the NDAA, but that “the law unfairly targets Chinese-made drones and does not designate an agency to conduct the necessary risk assessment.” agency that assumes that responsibility, DJI products will automatically be added to the covered list, the company said.
Even if someone steps forward to do the update, many US defense agencies have already taken strong measures against Chinese-made drones.
“The position of the Department of Defense (DOD) is that the systems produced by Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) pose a serious threat to national security,” the DOD wrote in a 2021 statement confirming that military organizations are not allowed to use the company’s equipment.
Earlier this year, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint warning that the Chinese government could collect sensitive information about Americans and the country’s infrastructure using Chinese-made drones.
In addition to those security concerns, politicians are also targeting DJI for its market dominance. By most estimates, DJI has controlled at least 70 percent of the US drone market for several years.
In advocating for the passage of the Anti-CCP Drones Act, the bill’s sponsor, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), said “It is unconstitutional to allow Communist China to become our drone industry.”
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