By Ezra Bitterman
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
JEFFERSON CITY — Some Missouri lawmakers want to ban government agencies from buying Chinese-made drones, citing national security risks. But the move could prove costly, especially for law enforcement.
Many of Missouri’s first responders rely on drones made by Shenzhen-based DJI, a manufacturer with about 70% of the global market share.
Those drones tend to be significantly less expensive than U.S.-made ones.
Purchasing records obtained by the Post-Dispatch illustrate the difference in prices: Drones made in the United States in use by the Missouri State Highway Patrol were eight to 12 times more expensive to buy than those made by DJI.
Because of that cost difference, the highway patrol is one of the few law enforcement agencies in Missouri that uses American-made drones. The average DJI drone owned by the highway patrol costs around $2,000 with U.S.-made ones running upward of $20,000.
During a Senate committee hearing earlier this month on the proposed legislation, High Ridge Fire Protection District Chief John Barton raised concerns about the effect a China ban would have on his agency.
“Right now, foreign-made drones are saving American lives,” he said. “When technology and funding allow, we would gladly prioritize purchasing American hardware over Chinese hardware.”
Law enforcement officials flooded the public hearing to express concern that banning Chinese drones would prevent them from doing lifesaving work.
Officials from the O’Fallon Police Department said the proposal would cost them around $200,000 to replace what they have with American products.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Rick Brattin, R- Harrisonville, includes a grant program where law enforcement can be reimbursed for replacing Chinese drones with ones made in the United States.
At the early March hearing many refuted whether China could remote access or capture data from drones, a common rationale given for why they should be banned.
“(This bill) is about lobbying efforts by domestic drone manufacturers aiming to ban non-U.S. drones for financial gain instead of innovating to meet public safety needs,” St. Charles County Ambulance District John Yeast said.
He added that DJI drones are generally operated offline preventing data from being uploaded. DJI created an offline mode in 2018 amid American scrutiny.
Neither Brattin’s proposal nor a similar one in the Missouri House has been voted out of committee.
Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R- Holts Summit, said he wouldn’t bring the legislation for a vote until Brattin got support from law enforcement.
Brattin told the Post-Dispatch he was surprised there was so much pushback in Missouri given the bipartisan support at the federal level to regulate Chinese drones.
In President Joe Biden’s last days in office, the U.S. Department of Commerce opened public comment on whether the federal government should restrict Chinese drones from the U.S. market.
The last major defense bill signed by Biden called on the U.S. government to assess the national security risks of foreign-made drones.
A U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report in 2021 stated that control of Chinese firms is blurred and that any entity could be compelled to act on behalf of the Chinese government’s interest.
At the beginning of President Donald Trump’s first term he signed into law bans on Chinese telecommunications equipment and security cameras.
The Biden administration issued a rule banning Chinese-made cars that can connect to the internet. He also signed a bipartisan law forcing ByteDance, a Chinese company to divest from TikTok for the app to remain available in America.
The public comment period over whether Chinese drones should be regulated ended earlier this month. Now the government will soon decide whether a rule needs to be put in place to prohibit Chinese drones.
The Missouri drone legislation is House Bill 751 and Senate Bill 296.
Missouri lawmaker airs plan to ban Chinese-made drones
Rep. Josh Hurlbert, R- Smithville, said his legislation would build on similar efforts at the national level where rules are being written to address potential threats from China and Russia.
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