Currently, the U.S. is in the midst of a lobbyist battle royale for control of the domestic drone market. Drone manufacturers are facing a mountain of challenges that include import tariffs impacting 70% of the market, the legality of the airspace itself, and defense-induced security-related issues. We just want to use them for environmental work! These are the drone-related issues we’re tracking on our clients’ behalf:

Tariffs. While Western manufacturers are making headway, DJI, a Chinese firm, still holds approximately 70% of the global market share. However, there has been a concerted public relations effort to associate DJI tech with the Chinese Communist Party, and a new slew of tariffs on Chinese tech imports have made their sales in the USA that much more difficult. What began under the Trump administration as a long list of tariffed imports was increased when the Biden Administration added tariffs targeting the Chinese tech sectors. These includes drone producer, DJI. 

Airspace. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) lobbying groups in Washington DC are battling over the legality of the commercial drone airspace with domestic producers like Skydio and IT giants like Google leading the charge. The ultimate goal is to rid the drone airspace 0-400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL) of consumer drones so that logistics companies can have the flight plan clearance to deliver goods to your porch or driveway. A world where fleets of drones deliver equipment and supplies to your home or place of business is not as far off as you may think. While many producers in the commercial space have experimented with drone delivery, the issue is that without free airspace and digital ID tracking, flying in cluttered skies could lead to falling objects after a collision.  

Security. The Defense Innovation Unit, a small office of the Department of Defense (DOD) which oversees technological security concerns for the 21^st century, recently developed its Blue UAS designation. This new designation creates a class of drones available to commercial and military personnel that have superior cybersecurity capabilities and are assembled by parts that are sourced from western partners. Contractors in the commercial market can still operate without a Blue UAS certified drone; however, there is a growing list of DOD-related work types that can only be pursued with a certified Blue UAS unit, which affects contractors like Waterborne. 

Although our specialties are in agriculture and risk assessment, these limitations are not a far cry from a federal ban of non-Blue UAS systems. The argument is that banning non-Blue systems will prevent nefarious players from using drones as a matter of state security. Securing  our clients’ data is precisely why Waterborne has strict policies in place to only use secure localized networks for flight operations and to only move data files directly via micro-SD card rather than uploading data to the DJI cloud. 

All new industries disrupt old ones and drone tech is no different from the cars, planes or trains that came before them. Politicians in Washington need to embrace this emerging technology for the brilliant tool that it is and advance new laws and security protocols to account for the new benefits and risks that are apparent. The comprehensive impact of drones may not be seen for many years, yet the impact in the interim is undeniable.