EXCLUSIVE — Every Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee has issued their support for the Trump administration’s decision to block any future sales of foreign-made drones or drone components.
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission banned the import and sale of all new drone models and critical equipment made by foreign manufacturers by adding them to the so-called “Covered List” of entities deemed to “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”
“America needs a cutting-edge small drone industry. Given the scope and scale of market manipulation by foreign adversaries, President Trump is absolutely right to ban the import of drones and components from those adversaries to protect American industry, as originally envisioned in Congress’s passage of Section 1709 of the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act,” the 14 SASC republicans said in a joint statement to the Washington Examiner.
As the lawmakers referenced, the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act effectively initiated the interagency investigation with a provision that set a one-year deadline for an “appropriate national security agency” to determine if “communications or video surveillance equipment” produced by Chinese companies and their subsidiaries “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.”
The ban does not include models already approved for sale or those already purchased.
DJI and Autel Robotics, two Chinese drone manufacturing companies, account for an overwhelming share of the U.S. drone market, with DJI’s share of the global market exceeding 70%, according to data from market research firm Research and Markets. Concerns about Americans’ use of Chinese-manufactured drones, both by U.S. forces and for private use, have raised national security threats for several years now.
Drones have applications for law enforcement, first responders, and agriculture, in addition to civilians’ personal use. Both the administration and lawmakers want to see the U.S. drone industrial base increase exponentially to fill the void and to remove the vulnerabilities posed by the use of Chinese drones.
“This action dovetails perfectly with the $2.5 billion for the U.S. drone industry that we appropriated for defense in the reconciliation bill, which will kick-start the rapid growth of scaled American manufacturing of small drones,” the lawmakers added. “We appreciate the thoughtfulness of this executive order, which gives Americans who have relied on foreign-made drones time to transition to American-made drones and allows us to continue working closely with allies and partners to rebuild free-market supply chains for small drone parts.”
In June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to accelerate the commercialization of drone technologies and scale up domestic drone production. A big part of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s agenda at the Pentagon has been to revitalize and scale up the defense industrial base.
Simultaneously, the proliferation of drones, both commercially and militarily, also poses a significant threat to the U.S. domestically and abroad.
FCC BANS NEW FOREIGN-MADE DRONES AND COMPONENTS DUE TO SECURITY THREATS
“Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones, offer the potential to enhance public safety as well as cement America’s leadership in global innovation,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement. “But criminals, terrorists, and hostile foreign actors have intensified their weaponization of these technologies, creating new and serious threats to our homeland.”
Law enforcement authorities need to be able to identify, track, and ultimately intercept any drone that could pose a threat to Americans domestically, and need to ensure that, in their efforts, they don’t unintentionally harm anyone as well, which makes physically intercepting drones more difficult.
