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Why can’t they just require government agencies to purchase US-made drones? Why is this a bigger threat than any of the millions of foreign electronics used to
by bicx 10mo ago
Why can’t they just require government agencies to purchase US-made drones? Why is this a bigger threat than any of the millions of foreign electronics used to communicate in the U.S.?
- bad_haircut72 10mo agoIts probably protectionism to protect/boost the domestic drone industry
- herewulf 10mo agoWhat domestic drone industry?
- sowbug 10mo agoIt's right down the street from US domestic coffee, semiconductor, game console, laptop, rare earth mineral, graphite, and banana industries. All these US industries are protected by baseline and reciprocal tariffs.
- klooney 10mo agoWe have a big semiconductor industry! We just didn't have TSMC.
- hmm37 10mo agoPerhaps Trump Jr's Unusual Machines.
- AndrewKemendo 10mo agoThe entire point is to force the creation of one
- expedition32 10mo agoA US drone industry would still have to compete with China on the global market. The entire developing world doesn't give a shit about US sanctions.
- klooney 10mo agoSkydio and Freefly and a bunch of defense contractors. Skydio is pretty big, IIRC
- gbear605 10mo agoAt least theoretically, there could be code in the China-made drones that allows them to be taken over in the event of a war between China and the US. In practice, this is probably just protectionist.
- VerifiedReports 10mo agoTaken over how, though? They are controlled by short-range radio, and have no cellular transceivers.
- gbear605 10mo agoA lot of them are controllable from mobile devices through apps that could have new code remotely deployed to them - for example https://www.dji.com/downloads/djiapp/dji-go-4 https://www.dji.com/downloads/djiapp/dji-go-4. The apps are mostly for controlling the camera, but presumably they're not airgapped from the flight controls.
- jacquesm 10mo agoAnd they run heavily encrypted firmware, so you have no idea what is actually happening. There is so much CPU power in those things it puts your cell phone to shame and a lot more sensors to boot. Some models have 8 onboard cameras.
- remarkEon 10mo agoBecause there's a non-trivial element of the current USG (and probably a decent sized portion of American voters) who think we'll be at war with PRC within the next couple years, at some point when the next Taiwan invasion windows open (April and October each year). From that perspective, this is prudent policy. If you don't think this is likely, or don't care about broader historical or geopolitical trends, then yes it's very annoying.
- ulfw 10mo agoIf you think that is likely there won't be a USA or much of the rest of the world anyway. So this whole thing is utterly stupid
- ukblewis 10mo ago[flagged]
- herewulf 10mo agoThere is nothing to prepare for because the only possible war between the USA and China is a nuclear war and such a war has no victor. Both countries are "prepared" in terms of nuclear weapons. The USA is clearly not prepared to sacrifice any of its own cities to prevent an invasion of Taiwan. All this sabre rattling and military buildup only serves to put money in the pockets of the military industrial complex and/or build military capabilities for each country to exert its will within its own sphere of influence.
- RealityVoid 10mo ago> There is nothing to prepare for because the only possible war between the USA and China is a nuclear war and such a war has no victor. I think there are 2 false statements here. First, you could have conventional conflict alone, the same way you had WW2 without extensive use of chemical weapons. Second, there are possible paths to have a winnable nuclear war, actually, the US did have one a couple of decades ago and it won. I do agree that saying this out loud though is dangerous because the reason for nuclear taboo is also based on the perception of "end of world" it has.
- jubjubbird 10mo agoDepartment of Interior tried that, but "Interior faces challenges with maintaining a sufficient drone fleet because drones compliant with its policies are more expensive and do not always have sufficient capabilities, among other issues, according to officials." https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106924 https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106924