As a volunteer rescuer, Hedrick uses thermal drones to search for people trapped by mudslides and cargo drones to send water and baby formula to those who are stranded – something he did after Hurricane Helene. — AP
WASHINGTON: Russell Hedrick, a North Carolina farmer, flies drones to spray fertilisers on his corn, soybean and wheat fields at a fraction of what it would cost him to use a conventional ground spreader.
As a volunteer rescuer, Hedrick uses thermal drones to search for people trapped by mudslides and cargo drones to send water and baby formula to those who are stranded – something he did after Hurricane Helene.
Now he is fretting that one day he will have to ground his drone fleet. Most commercial drones sold in the United States, including those used by Hedrick, are made in China. They have become a target of US lawmakers, who see the dominance of Chinese drones not only as an espionage threat but as a commercial threat because they make it nearly impossible for American manufacturers to compete.
It’s another front in the US-China economic and technological competition that’s likely to intensify with the return to the White House in January of Republican Donald Trump, who has promised to get tough on China.
Washington has already placed restrictions on Chinese telecommunications companies and imposed high tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles as the US competes with China in semiconductors, artificial intelligence and other areas.
A defence bill that Congress passed on Dec 18 includes a clause to stop two Chinese companies from selling new drones in the US if a review finds they pose "an unacceptable risk” to American national security. Congress has banned federal agencies from acquiring Chinese drones, with some exceptions, and several states have barred publicly funded programs from using or procuring Chinese drones.
A broader ban is worrisome for Americans for whom drones have become a part of their lives and work. It could disrupt wide-ranging operations, from law enforcement to mapping and filmmaking that drone operators say are viable because of the low cost and high performance of the Chinese drones. American-made drones just aren’t comparable, they say.
In Hickory, North Carolina, Hedrick began flying Chinese-made drones in 2019 to fertilise crops and monitor crop health. A drone spreader costs US$35,000 (RM157,234), while a conventional ground sprayer would set him back US$250,000 (RM1.1mil), he said.
"With the drone efficiency, we are able to do things we were never able to do before: to apply fertiliser but use less, which is good for American consumers,” Hedrick said.
But it’s precisely that reliance on Chinese drones that worries US lawmakers.
"It is strategically irresponsible to allow Communist China to be our drone factory,” argued Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who has been tapped by Trump to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. She led earlier House efforts to ban new Chinese drones.
It was the role of drones in everyday life that drove Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., to get Congress to restrict the purchase of Chinese drones by federal agencies. Those restrictions were included in a defence bill that Democratic President Joe Biden signed last year.
Scott has compared Chinese drones to spy balloons that could "gather data or carry harmful payloads” across America, posing risks to military bases, critical infrastructure and natural resources.
Michael Robbins, president and chief executive officer of AUVSI, an advocacy group for unmanned vehicles such as drones, opposes an immediate ban. Instead, his group has urged the government to support the US drone-making industry through investment so it can catch up with its Chinese competitors in both capability and cost.
He applauds Congress for addressing some of the issues in the 2025 defence budget, including promoting investment in autonomous technology and working to develop a secure supply chain for US drone manufacturing.
That vulnerability was clear earlier this year when Beijing sanctioned the US drone maker Skydio, forcing it to ration its batteries sourced from China.
"This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers,” wrote Adam Bry, chief executive officer of Skydio.
Citing security interests, China has restricted exports to the US of drone parts, including motors, flight controllers and imaging equipment.
John Goodson, CEO of Darkhive, a San Antonio-based drone maker, said a ban would not stop Chinese drone makers from selling their products elsewhere in the world but could hurt U.S. drone companies that rely on China for parts.
For now, it remains unrealistic to ban Chinese drones when there are few comparable products, said Faine Greenwood, a drone enthusiast who writes extensively about drones. "If we ban the Chinese drones, we knock out many amazing things we do.”
The best-known Chinese drones are those by DJI Technology Co, a company founded in 2006 and based in the southern city of Shenzhen. It's named in the defence spending bill, along with another Chinese company, Autel Robotics.
DJI has the lion's share of the global drone market and is the dominant player in the US market. Its devices are known for their affordability and high performance. They are even used on the battlefield in Ukraine by both sides, even though DJI does not make military drones.
DJI's drones have been used by first responders to locate disaster victims, mappers to survey roads and utility lines, mosquito control officers to reach swarms of larvae, and filmmakers to capture aerial footage. Police use them to help prevent crime and find missing people.
Hedrick shows footage of when he used his drone to drop supplies to people during Hurricane Helene recovery. — AP
Hedrick, the North Carolina farmer, mobilised drone search efforts as a volunteer after Helene hit. On the first night, he and his teammates located 150 stranded people. When they could not be immediately rescued, Hedrick said his team used DJI cargo drones to send in supplies.
"I am not going to say I won’t love to have US drones, but I don’t see the American drones as anywhere close to the DJI drones in terms of reliability, ease of use, and just the user-friendly software,” Hedrick said. "The US drones are not as good as the DJI ones but cost twice as much.”
But as US-China relations have soured, DJI drones have come under scrutiny. The US government has put the company on several blacklists, saying it violates human rights by supplying drones to Chinese police to surveil members of the ethnic Uyghur minority, and alleging links to the Chinese military.
DJI has denied wrongdoing and is suing the Pentagon over the designation that it is a Chinese military company. UScustoms officials also have blocked some DJI shipments over concerns that the products might have been made with forced labor. DJI has called it "a customs-related misunderstanding.”
As for the defence bill, DIJ said it contains no provision that would allow the company to defend itself. "We call on a relevant technical intelligence agency to undertake an audit of our products, and we ask for a fair right of reply to any findings,” DJI said.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said China opposes what it calls the politicisation of trade.
"The Chinese government firmly supports Chinese companies in carrying out international trade and cooperation in drones for civilian use, and opposes certain countries’ frequent illegal sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals on the grounds of so-called national security,” Liu Pengyu, the embassy spokesman, said in a statement.
Several states have already restricted the use of Chinese drones. In Tennessee, public agencies, including police and fire departments, are no longer allowed to purchase DJI drones.
That caused a headache for Capt. Chris Lowe of the Kingsport Fire Department. After his department lost a DJI Mavic Pro drone, he was quoted US$5,000 (RM22,46) for a replacement from an approved list of drones, when another DJI Mavic Pro would cost US$1,000 (RM4,492) to US$1,500 (RM6,738).
"Basically it would be a DJI clone but doesn’t have all the capabilities,” Lowe said of the alternative. Without any state assistance, he said he would either forgo a new drone or tighten the belt in equipment maintenance elsewhere. He said the department has used drones to scope out wildfires, chemical leaks and disaster scenes and to search for missing people. "It's about life and death,” he said.
In Wimberley, Texas, Gene Robinson has used high-resolution drone images to analyse differences in vegetation to discover buried bodies. He said he helped police find a victim's buried arm, making prosecution possible. Robinson doesn’t think there’s a viable alternative to the DJI drone he uses.
He said his project at Texas State University's Forensic Anthropology Center would be "deader than a doornail” if there's a national ban on Chinese-made drones.
At the Interior Department, the policy against foreign-made drones has hamstrung its drone operations, resulting in the "loss of opportunities to collect data on landscape, natural and cultural resources, wildlife and infrastructure," according to a September report by the US Government Accountability Office.
In Florida, law enforcement officers last year complained to the state senate that a ban on state-funded agencies operating Chinese-made drones left them with costlier aircraft that didn't perform as well. That prompted state lawmakers to appropriate US$25mil (RM112.31mil) to help government-run drone programs acquire compliant models.
Christopher Todd, executive director of the not-for-profit group Airborne International Response Team, described the ban and the subsequent switch as "an absolute mess."
"Lawmakers failed to understand that this issue is far more complicated than simply changing from one drone to another," he said. "You need to learn a new user interface with new shortcuts and new protocols, and then you need to change all of the software and accessories and re-examine all of your network configurations to accommodate the technology change."
But the financial assistance as well as training programs, such as the one provided by his group, made the transition possible, he said.
More than 90% of law enforcement agencies in Florida used DJI drones in 2022, and the share plummeted to about 14% after the ban, according to Todd's group.
In Orange County, where Orlando is located, the sheriff's office said it spent nearly US$580,000 (RM2.6mil) to replace 18 noncompliant drones last year and received nearly US$400,000 (RM1.8mil) in reimbursements from the state.
"The transition has gone well and has simultaneously increased our drone fleet with better capabilities and technology,” the sheriff's office said. – AP
