The U.S. Interior Department Grounds All of Its Chinese-Made Drones

Photo credit: Omer Messinger - Getty Images
Photo credit: Omer Messinger - Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics

  • On Wednesday, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt signed an order to ground over 800 drones, citing cybersecurity risks.

  • Back in October, the Interior Department announced that it would soon ground Chinese manufactured drones as part of a review of its drone program.

  • Drones involved in critical safety missions, like putting out wildfires, will still operate.


The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) just signed a no-fly order to officially ground all of its drones—around 800 or so—due to cybersecurity concerns with drones manufactured in China or made from Chinese parts. The only drones to escape the nationwide grounding were a handful of emergency drones busy battling wildfires.

The grounding comes months after a DOI announcement in October stating that all drones in its fleet that were made in China, or made from Chinese parts, would soon be grounded. The DOI is now formalizing that initial cessation. It's unclear exactly how many drones have Chinese origins, but Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says the DOI should be "very able" to complete drone-assisted missions "without sacrifice," according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Department of Interior uses drones for much more than just fighting wildfires. Non-emergency drones inspect soil erosion, collect data for maps, and conduct surveys of endangered species. Bernhardt did add that he hopes domestic manufacturers will eventually replace any of the Chinese drones that have left a gap in the fleet.

Since the initial October grounding, the Department has only authorized 12 drone flights to deal with wildfires and floods, Carl Danko, a spokesperson for the Department of Interior, told NPR. The move to formally ground drones manufactured in China or containing parts made in China came after an "ongoing review" of the Interior's drone program, Danko said in an official statement.

As with other Chinese-made technology—like the electronics equipment and infrastructure that smartphone giant Huawei wants to install in the U.K.—espionage is the foremost concern.

"Drones are important to critical Department of the Interior missions, such as combating wildfires and conducting life-saving search and rescue operations; however, we must ensure that the technology used for these operations is such that it will not compromise our national security interests," Danko said.

Notably, nowhere in the order does the Interior actually cite hard evidence of espionage nor does it directly cite China (though last year's pause on DOI drones did mention China by name). Instead, it seems the decision is preemptive or perhaps political in nature—at least that's how one Chinese drone maker interpreted it.

Photo credit: DOI
Photo credit: DOI

DJI, one of the most popular manufacturers of civilian drones, said in a statement Wednesday that it was "extremely disappointed" in the Interior's decision to ground all Chinese-made drones in the government's fleet, stating that it "inappropriately" treats the origin company of a piece of technology as "a litmus test" for security.

"This action will ground the entire DOI drone program, which relies on drones made with globally sourced components to create the federal government’s largest and most innovative civilian drone fleet. This decision makes clear that the U.S. government’s concerns about DJI drones, which make up a small portion of the DOI fleet, have little to do with security and are instead part of a politically-motivated agenda to reduce market competition and support domestically produced drone technology, regardless of its merits."

As DJI mentions, it only makes up a small portion of the DOI's fleet, the rest of the models include Autel's EVO (China), Parrot's Anafi (France), FireFLY's PRO/S (New Hampshire), 3DR's Solo Quadcopter (California), Pulse Aerospace's Vapor 55TM Helicopter (Kansas). It's unclear how many of each of these drones are in the current fleet or if any of the domestic models have been grounded for containing Chinese parts.

Photo credit: T3 Magazine - Getty Images
Photo credit: T3 Magazine - Getty Images


DJI continued on to say that its equipment has been built with special security considerations just for U.S. government agencies and that the drones have been "independently tested and validated" by U.S. cybersecurity consultants and federal agencies, including the DOI and Department of Homeland Security.

DJI does make government editions of two of its consumer drones, the Matrice 600 Pro and Mavic Pro, just for the Interior Department. The company said that the DOI had tested its drones during a 15-month testing period and, shortly after, the Interior released a lengthy report in July, stating that the Department recommends the use of the two DJI drone models. DJI wants "clear standards" to give commercial and government drone manufacturers from any origin country equal opportunity to have performance, reliability, and security tested.

But for now the no-fly order has no expiration date, so it will remain in place until revoked.

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