US House Panel Seeks Ban On Federal Purchases of China Drones (reuters.com) 33
David Shepardson reports via Reuters: The top members of a U.S. House committee on China are introducing a bill that seeks to ban the U.S. government from buying Chinese drones. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the committee, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat, are introducing the "American Security Drone Act" on Wednesday, the lawmakers said in a statement to Reuters. "This bill would prohibit the federal government from using American taxpayer dollars to purchase this equipment from countries like China," Gallagher said. "It is imperative that Congress pass this bipartisan bill to protect U.S. interests and our national security supply chain."
The bill would also bar local and state governments from purchasing Chinese drones using federal grants and require a federal report detailing the amount of foreign commercial off-the-shelf drones and covered unmanned aircraft systems procured by federal departments and agencies from China. Krishnamoorthi said the bill "helps protect against any vulnerabilities posed by our government agencies' reliance on foreign-manufactured drone technology and will encourage growth in the U.S. drone industry."
Separately, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Mark Warner that would prohibit the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from operating or providing federal funds for drones produced in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba. "Taxpayer dollars should never fund drones manufactured in regions that are hostile toward our nation," Blackburn said. China recently announced export controls on some drones and drone-related equipment, saying it wanted to safeguard "national security and interests." The U.S. Commerce Department in 2020 added dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist, including the country's top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone giant DJI.
The bill would also bar local and state governments from purchasing Chinese drones using federal grants and require a federal report detailing the amount of foreign commercial off-the-shelf drones and covered unmanned aircraft systems procured by federal departments and agencies from China. Krishnamoorthi said the bill "helps protect against any vulnerabilities posed by our government agencies' reliance on foreign-manufactured drone technology and will encourage growth in the U.S. drone industry."
Separately, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Mark Warner that would prohibit the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from operating or providing federal funds for drones produced in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela or Cuba. "Taxpayer dollars should never fund drones manufactured in regions that are hostile toward our nation," Blackburn said. China recently announced export controls on some drones and drone-related equipment, saying it wanted to safeguard "national security and interests." The U.S. Commerce Department in 2020 added dozens of Chinese companies to a trade blacklist, including the country's top chipmaker SMIC and Chinese drone giant DJI.
A silly political stunt (Score:2)
You're not protecting technology - they already have it. Americans won't make them - too expensive to pay your workforce or deal with even the US's lax environmental laws when you can let the Chinese slave away and poison themselves.
As long as you check the more serious drones for backdoors, you might as well let your enemy harm themselves making your weapons for you.
You want to do the Chinese a favour? Go for full out economic warfare. They'll have to bootstrap themselves and they'll do it while the US
Re: (Score:2)
Judging by the Russian Lancets and such, I think maybe we should buy some rather than closing the door. If they'd sell.
Between the cope cages and the kamikaze drone strike videos...
Re: (Score:1)
Americans can make anything. People print 3D drone racers all the time at the local university, ones which work quite well.
Problem is that businesses love the cheapness of China and will embrace communism (little-c communism) and totalitarianism to save a couple cents. Look how companies make big deals about refusing to do anything for the US LEOs, but bend over backwards to the CCP. Then, they turn around and whine that the costs in the US are too expensive.
China excels at making stuff cheap. If you wa
Re:A silly political stunt (Score:4, Insightful)
You're not protecting technology - they already have it.
It's not about the currently available commercial technology. It's about the next technology that's just about to come. Drones in warfare are just starting to have effective AI targeting systems. China will stop delivering the platform that allows you to do that on top of their drones just at the point before you need it.
Americans won't make them - too expensive to pay your workforce or deal with even the US's lax environmental laws when you can let the Chinese slave away and poison themselves.
There actually are Americans making them including the top level of military drones. More importantly there are actual allies making them, including Ukraine, but also in the UK and lots of places in the EU as well as Taiwan. These are people who are proper allies in the sense that they will actually sell you either the company or the license for the whole technology at the point that you need them in an actual war. As opposed to the Chinese or the Russians who will get you addicted and then cut you off just before they attack you.
As long as you check the more serious drones for backdoors,
Nobody has worked out how to check simple semiconductors for backdoors and in fact it's basically impossible. Physical random number generators can be poisoned with undetectable tiny changes in doping, for example. How are you possibly going to check a whole drone?
you might as well let your enemy harm themselves making your weapons for you.
Which do you think does more harm? You having the full details of your enemies weapons along with any weaknesses and backdoors or the opposite? You being able to maintain your enemies weapons or your enemy requiring you to maintain them?
You want to do the Chinese a favour? Go for full out economic warfare. They'll have to bootstrap themselves and they'll do it while the US writhes in serious discomfort as their supplier of inexpensive labour and tech is cut off by their own actions.
There are of course strategies and tactics. There are happy medium things where, for example you allow toy drones by disallow commercial ones. In the end though, the US has to wean itself off total dependence on China. Labour cost problems can be resolved by investing seriously in robotics.
There's a more fundamental thing though. China has long accepted and stated openly that they are at war with the US. Pretending that isn't true doesn't help anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As long as you check the more serious drones for backdoors,
Nobody has worked out how to check simple semiconductors for backdoors and in fact it's basically impossible. Physical random number generators can be poisoned with undetectable tiny changes in doping, for example. How are you possibly going to check a whole drone?
Exactly. However, the original comment was true and insightful: If we can solve all security issues, then we don't need to worry about security issues.
Of course, that's the entire point, that we don't have the ability to solve all security issues and therefore we do need to worry about security issues.
buy them, change them (Score:4, Interesting)
Let China make the drones cheaply. Take advantage of their supply chain. Reverse engineer the electronics and build your own. Replace any 'suspect' components with your own.
If we want to compete with China in manufacturing we have to develop quick/short supply chains that fulfill a lot of different requirements.
Re: (Score:2)
Hello again, AC, or should I say, Chinabot? Apple and America don't steal Chinese technology. That's exclusively China's tactic.
Re: (Score:2)
Hello again, AC, or should I say, Chinabot? Apple and America don't steal Chinese technology. That's exclusively China's tactic.
Speaking as an American ally, I can guarantee you that, whilst American business does have a patent system and so some of that goes on, there are plenty of people in the American Military Industrial Complex who are nowhere near as stupid as you suggest and will take whatever is the best technology available, no matter what source.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you have any evidence that source has ever been the Chinese, much less regularly?
Anyway, surely you understand that generally speaking it's the Chinese stealing. Bringing up the military seems like a weird deflection.
Re: (Score:2)
You can't buy them though. China put export controls on their drone technology.
There are big military implications for access to cheap, high end drones. Ukrainian forces have been buying drones on AliExpress, adding bombs to them, and using them to take out tanks and fly them into occupied buildings.
They are extremely hard to defend against. Difficult to shoot down because they are small and produce little heat compared to chemical powered drones/missiles. Nets are somewhat effective, but it's difficult to
Re: (Score:2)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
How China can normalize US relations (Score:2)
Change government to Monarchy aka King
Refer to King XiJingPing as XJP
Change punishment for all crimes to cutting off body parts
Commence a ‘Hotel California’ policy for any China-bashing journalist who enters a Chinese embassy
Roll back women’s rights and ban the use of gender neutral pronoun ‘ta’
With these tried and proven methods, China can repair relations with the US
Re: (Score:2)
Change country name to ‘Middle Kingdom’
Change government to Monarchy aka King
Refer to King XiJingPing as XJP
Change punishment for all crimes to cutting off body parts
Commence a ‘Hotel California’ policy for any China-bashing journalist who enters a Chinese embassy
Roll back women’s rights and ban the use of gender neutral pronoun ‘ta’
With these tried and proven methods, China can repair relations with the US
China doesn't have enough cheap oil to pull that off.
The correct procedure to have good US relations is.
1. Have lots of cheap oil and sell it for $US.
2. Do whatever the fuck you want.
Re: (Score:2)
WTF are you talking about?
Also, China has been selling the organs of political prisoners to their rich for many decades now.
Is this even viable? (Score:2)
Aside from the military there are a lot of drones used by federal government agencies that need COTS systems-- things in the $5-10k price range. I'm sure there are many things they do with the sub $1k price range as well, but the complexity there is a bit lower to replicate, even if it ends up at a higher cost.
Would seem much easier to require federal purchasing to require modular communications and control modules or bare units without those components.
we won’t win (Score:2)
these types of restrictions have been implemented many times before and they backfire every time.
prices go up, of course. and the “enemy” just gets better.
will we ever learn?
Re:we won’t win (Score:4, Interesting)
There are lots of good privacy and military reasons to do it, though, in this case. China has proved they are willing to force their manufacturers to spy on everyone. They literally have been caught implanting chips in technology several times. That's why many nations have banned Huawei products.
Re: (Score:2)
There are lots of good privacy and military reasons to do it, though, in this case. China has proved they are willing to force their manufacturers to spy on everyone. They literally have been caught implanting chips in technology several times. That's why many nations have banned Huawei products.
At the start of the recent Ukraine conflict they supplied Russia with drone detection technology whilst the same thing was disabled for Ukraine.
Re: (Score:1)
So the GP is usually an idiot, but he's literally not wrong in this case. [theregister.com]
You literally are wrong, about literally everything you posted.
who else makes them? (Score:1)
Does anyone except China make them?