The full text of the revised version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act released by the US Senate Armed Services Committee recently is different from the version passed by the House of Representatives last month. The bill of the Senate committee does not include provisions restricting the sales of DJI drones, a Chinese drone manufacturer, in the United States. The Pakistan Defence Forum website claims that DJI is the dominant player in the US agricultural drone market, which might be the reason why the Senate did not include the ban. Previously, the Japanese publication Nikkei Asia Review reported that Chinese-made drones are favored by the US police to such an extent that it's difficult to find substitutes.
According to US media reports, last month, the US House of Representatives passed the National Defense Authorization Act. The act caused a shock as it incorporated the Anti-China Drone Act, which added DJI's equipment and services to the so-called "covered list", prevented new DJI devices from obtaining licenses from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States, and might lead to the revocation of its existing FCC authorizations.
The "pursuit and suppression" of Chinese drones by the US government began as early as 2016 when some US lawmakers proposed restrictions on DJI on the grounds of "cyber data security". In 2017, the US Department of Defense included DJI in the sanctions list, claiming that DJI drones "are highly likely to provide critical infrastructure and law enforcement data of the United States to the Chinese government". In May 2019, the US government once again prohibited US federal agencies from purchasing drones manufactured in countries identified as having "security threats" and prohibited the use of federal funds to purchase DJI drones. In 2020, the US Department of Commerce included DJI in the "Entity List" on the grounds of "endangering US national security", making it impossible for DJI to obtain technology and products provided by the United States and US enterprises.
For these accusations and sanctions actions, DJI has repeatedly denied and opposed.
Contrary to this consecutive "pursuit and suppression" in politics, the demand for Chinese-made drones from multiple industries in the United States remains strong. Recently, representatives of more than 6,000 public safety agencies, police, and fire departments with drone programs in the United States wrote to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, opposing the inclusion of the Anti-China Drone Act in the National Defense Authorization Act. The New York Times of the United States said that DJI-produced drones often appear in rescue operations and drills. Some volunteer rescue workers said that this can help increase the speed of rescue. The US website DroneLife said that according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States, as of March this year, there were 966 drones registered with state police and sheriff's departments in Texas, of which 879 were produced by DJI. Among the 87 non-DJI drones, 56 were also produced by Chinese enterprises or companies associated with China.
