Banning Drones from China Has Hurt U.S. Ability to Fight Forest Fires

xizhimen · Oct 20, 2021

Banning Drones from China Has Hurt U.S. Ability to Fight Forest Fires

BY TOM O'CONNOR AND NAVEED JAMALI ON 10/20/21 AT 12:34 PM EDT

US. government moves restricting agencies access to the massive market of cheap and effective small drones made in China has made it more difficult to fight forest fires that have raged nationwide at unprecedented rates, among other important tasks.

The trend has also created a sharp divide among experts, officials and drone companies. Some feel the cost of such restrictions is too high, while others argue the measures remain justified nonetheless.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) first announced in October 2019 that it would pause the use of all drones either made in China or with parts originating from China over cybersecurity concerns. In January of last year, DOI issued Secretariat Order 3379,which temporarily grounded the entirety of its fleet of 800 drones. Since then, new legislation and further restrictions put in place across the government have put the future availability of such systems in question.

The addition of drones to activities such as fighting wildfires, law enforcement activity, traffic safety and wildlife conservation has widely been considered groundbreaking, both in optimizing mission capabilities and safeguarding the lives of personnel who may otherwise be in harm's way. Some of the most popular models adopted by such agencies are produced by DJI, a Shenzhen-based firm that is one of the largest and most popular drone manufacturers both in China and worldwide.

The shift on the once-universally celebrated use of such systems took place under the administration of President Donald Trump, which set out to challenge China and erode the reliance of the United States on its top global competitor's industry. But now, even as President Joe Biden's administration approaches its one-year mark, Trump's legacy on China lives on in a number of ways.

On Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Director Brendan Carr, who was appointed by Trump, called for further restricting DJI by adding it to the FCC Covered List that identifies products that are deemed "to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security" to the U.S. and disallows them to be purchased using federal dollars.

"DJI drones and the surveillance technology on board these systems are collecting vast amounts of sensitive data—everything from high-resolution images of critical infrastructure to facial recognition technology and remote sensors that can measure an individual's body temperature and heart rate," Carr stated said in an FCC press release shared with Newsweek.

"Security researchers have also found that DJI's software applications collect large quantities of personal information from the operator's smartphone that could be exploited by Beijing, " the press release reads. "Indeed, one former Pentagon official stated that 'we know that a lot of the information is sent back to China from DJI drones."