*Editor’s word: Whereas the writer examined information for the state of Texas, the information displays tendencies discovered all through the nation.
By DRONELIFE Options Editor Jim Magill
If the Countering CCP Drones Act, at present pending earlier than the U.S. Senate, turns into federal regulation, it might lead to huge modifications for drone packages within the state of Texas, as any new DJI drone fashions could be successfully banned. (Earlier types of the invoice known as for drones at present in use to be grounded, newer variations might impression solely future fashions.) Learn the textual content of the Countering CCP Drones Act in its present type right here.
FAA Information on Regulation Enforcement Drone Fleets
In line with information from the Federal Aviation Administration, as of March 18, there have been 966 AUVs registered to police and sheriff’s departments within the Lone Star State. Of that whole, 879 have been merchandise produced by DJI, the corporate particularly focused by the Act.
Of the 87 non-DJI drones registered to Texas police companies, 56 have been both made in China or produced by Chinese language-affiliated corporations. Of those, 43 have been merchandise of Autel Robotics, an organization primarily based in China, however which manufactures drones within the U.S., utilizing U.S. elements and labor, with a view to get round laws particularly geared toward merchandise made in China.
Eight drones flown by Texas police companies are merchandise of YUNEEC, primarily based within the city of Jinxi in Jiangsu Province, China. 4 of the drones registered to Texas police companies are merchandise of SwellPro an organization primarily based within the metropolis of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, China. The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Workplace operates a ZOHD drone, a product of Sonic Modell, primarily based within the metropolis of Dongguan in Guangdong Province.
Included among the many non-Chinese language drones registered to Texas police companies have been seven American-made GoPro drones; 5 produced by San Mateo, California-based Skydio; 4 constructed by Ontario, Canada-based Aeron; two merchandise manufactured by Fotokite, a US-Swiss firm that produces tethered drones; three produced by France-based Parrot; two made by Maxsur, a Texas-based firm that focuses on merchandise designed for the federal government and public security markets; two drones made by Massachusetts-based On the spot Eye; two by USA-based Brinc; one produced by Denver-based Leptron; one by Oregon-based Teledyne FLIR and one by California-based DSLRPros.
Operation Lone Star: Greater than 29,000 Flights
Like its counterparts on town and county degree, Texas’s largest police company, the statewide Division of Public Security (DPS) maintains a drone fleet overwhelmingly composed of UAVs produced by DJI. Many of those drones are used within the state’s controversial Operation Lone Star program, flying delicate missions alongside the border with Mexico to interdict cross-border drug traffickers and to keep watch over undocumented immigrants crossing the border.
“The Texas Division of Public Security (DPS) has 320 distant pilots able to working the division’s numerous 350 unmanned plane methods (UAS). In 2023 alone, these pilots carried out over 29,000 UAS flights in help of Operation Lone Star,” a DPS spokesman stated.
In line with DPS information, of the entire variety of drones within the police company’s fleet, 76 are EVO drones, produced by Autel Robotics. Over the previous a number of months, China-based Autel has labored to make sure that nearly all of its EVO drones are produced within the U.S. with U.S. labor and elements.
The DPS additionally flies 4 Dragonfish drones, additionally produced by Autel, and two C100s, a Blue UAS-approved drone manufactured by Huntsville Alabama-based PDW.
The rest of the DPS drone fleet consists of varied drone fashions produced by DJI, together with Matrice 300 RTK, Matrice 30T, Mavic 2 Enterprise, Mavic 2 Enterprise and Mini 3 Professional.
Countering CCP Drones Act seeks to Restrict DJI merchandise
The Countering CCP Drones Act is geared toward crippling DJI’s capacity to do enterprise within the U.S. by denying the corporate’s merchandise the usage of U.S.-maintained communication networks. The invoice, which the Home of Representatives just lately handed as a part of the must-pass Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, would require the inclusion of kit or companies produced or offered by DJI Applied sciences “on an inventory of communications gear or companies decided by the Federal Communications Fee (FCC) to pose an unacceptable danger to U.S. nationwide safety.”
In an announcement, the laws’s sponsor, U.S. Consultant Elise Stefanik (R.-New York), claimed that information collected by DJI drones working within the U.S., was in peril of being handed over to China’s Communist Occasion leaders. DJI, for its half, has insisted that it has taken steps to make sure that customers of its drones might safely retain their information with out having to share it with DJI.
Passage of the Countering CCP Drones Act shouldn’t be assured. Lawmakers might amend the invoice or take away it from the NDAA altogether earlier than passing the omnibus Protection invoice.
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based author with nearly a quarter-century of expertise protecting technical and financial developments within the oil and fuel trade. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P International Platts, Jim started writing about rising applied sciences, similar to synthetic intelligence, robots and drones, and the methods by which they’re contributing to our society. Along with DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared within the Houston Chronicle, U.S. Information & World Report, and Unmanned Techniques, a publication of the Affiliation for Unmanned Car Techniques Worldwide.
Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, knowledgeable drone companies market, and a fascinated observer of the rising drone trade and the regulatory surroundings for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles centered on the industrial drone area and is a world speaker and acknowledged determine within the trade. Miriam has a level from the College of Chicago and over 20 years of expertise in excessive tech gross sales and advertising for brand spanking new applied sciences.
For drone trade consulting or writing, E-mail Miriam.
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