USA does not ban DJI drones - for the time being

[11:14 Sun,22.December 2024 by Thomas Richter]

Like a sword of Damocles, a sales ban hung over the Chinese world market leader in the drone sector: the part of Countering CCP Drones Act, which would have immediately banned the import of all DJI drones into the USA, was not fully included in the defense spending bill just passed by the American Senate.

Automatic ban in 1 year

However, a one-year deadline was decided, after which the drones from DJI (as well as competitor Autel Robotics) will be automatically banned. DJI can only stop this ban if it can credibly prove that its drones "do not pose an unacceptable major risk to the national security of the United States", the burden of proof thus lies entirely with DJI.

If DJI cannot provide this proof, then the law instructs the American telecommunications authority FCC to prohibit DJI products from being authorized for radio communication, which would effectively be equivalent to an import stop of all DJI products with WLAN, Bluetooth or another radio network-capable chip and would affect drones as well as gimbals or action cams.

Although already purchased DJI products could theoretically continue to be used, their operation would then actually be illegal. The law also provides for the possibility that DJI might try to continue selling its products in the USA under a different brand name in the event of a ban and also bans "any subsidiary, affiliate or partner".

The law has already passed the House of Representatives and is now on President Biden&s desk, who will very likely sign it into law. If DJI cannot provide proof that it does not pose a threat to national security within the next 12 months, then only the then incumbent President Trump could lift the ban on DJI.

DJI drones as a security risk

DJI drones are seen as a security risk in the USA because it is feared that they could potentially collect sensitive information such as aerial photographs or telemetry data and transmit it to Chinese government agencies, which could endanger national security. They have therefore been banned in certain military and government facilities.

DJI drone in the service of science

Contradiction

Interestingly, opposition to the impending ban comes from

scientists, who use DJI&s drones for many different studies, including projects such as the SnotBot, a DJI drone equipped with petri dishes that is used to capture the spray from the blowhole of whales for an examination of their DNA, hormones and microbiome.

more infos at bei www.theverge.com

deutsche Version dieser Seite: USA verbieten DJI Drohnen vorest nicht - ein Jahr Gnadenfrist