THIS IS A PROBLEM: America’s Drone Crisis: ‘Made In America’ Is Nearly Impossible.

The New York Times had an article about a military drone exercise in Alaska and describes it as a comedy of errors. Drones crashed, missed targets, and nearly flew into a group of observers, all while being flown by the drone manufacturers themselves.

The U.S. military trails the Russians and Chinese in manufacturing, training with, and using drones by the millions. The U.S. is behind in developing drone technology while the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel are “dominated by swarms of … inexpensive drones that are largely produced with components from China,” according to the Times. One Chinese company, DJI, accounts for 70% of all worldwide drone sales, and they make millions of drones a year.

Beyond the obvious overmatch concerns, technical and manufacturing concerns exist as well. DOD explicitly and wisely prohibits the military from using drones of Chinese origin, remembering the challenges of Lenovo computers and Haiwei phones and their links to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) government. DoD has a “Blue List” of drone manufacturers and models authorized for U.S. military use. However, only 14 companies and 20 models are on that approved list. Among these 20 models are the ones that performed so poorly in Alaska.

Read the whole thing.