Tensions between the US and China are on the rise
The Pentagon is in a panic about relying on Chinese tech
Because the US military depends on China for small drones
But the Pentagon has an idea to break its Made in China habit
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
As if China's military build-up in the South China Sea
and its constant threats over Taiwan
weren't enough to worry about,
the Pentagon now has a new cause for concern.
No, not giant military cats.
Although those are concerning.
No, I’m talking about the US military's
reliance on Chinese drones.
“The idea is for small units on the battlefield,
that you have small drones that soldiers
can quickly unpack and get in the air,”
says Michael Horowitz,
a University of Pennsylvania professor.
“These quadcopters are also inexpensive enough
that if one crashes or you lose one,
it’s not that big a deal.”
The drones we’re talking about here
are a type of small Unmanned Aerial System—or UAS.
This kind.
They’re used by the US military
mostly for reconnaissance missions.
But even little drones can be lethal.
"All it takes is something literally as simple as this.
Here is a device that is built to drop a payload.
So this actually hooks onto the sides of this, underneath.
And this closes.
And all you have to do is,
with something less than a hundred bucks,
is literally put it on the bottom of this
and it allows you to trigger a mechanism
that can release a payload."
"It can kill somebody but it's not at the lethality
that a Hellfire missile would have."
But the Pentagon is not so much worried about
the Chinese military sending a swarm of drones over
to attack the US mainland...
since Amazon’s already got that covered.
No, the Pentagon is worried about the Chinese-made drones
that the US government has been buying of its own free will.
Specifically, this Chinese technology
could potentially have built-in security flaws—
designed to give the Chinese military
an advantage in case of conflict.
For example, a secret piece of code
that would send sensitive information to China.
According to this 2017 memo,
the Department of Defense ordered troops to stop using drones
made by Chinese company DJI
because of "increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities."
According to the memo,
DJI was at the time
one of the most widely used brands of drones by the US Army.
Citing a classified report into
“DJI UAS Technology Threat and User Vulnerabilities,”
the Army ordered troops to “cease all use,
uninstall all DJI applications,
remove all batteries/storage media from devices,
and secure the equipment.”
The Pentagon didn’t reveal
the specifics of the national security threat.
And at the time,
a DJI company spokesman complained to the BBC that
"The US Army has not explained
why it suddenly banned the use of DJI drones and components,
what 'cyber-vulnerabilities' it is concerned about."
Somehow I don’t think the cyber-vulnerability
was that the drones had too many feelings.
But to illustrate the problem,
in 2017, “[DJI’s] Phantom series of [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles drew]
the attention of hackers who’ve been able to break into
and manipulate the drone’s GPS software,
punching holes in the ‘geofences’
that sought to keep the drones out of no-fly zones.”
Obviously, that hack was not good PR for DJI.
So in early 2019, DJI released this video,
promoting its new line of drones designed for government use:
“DJI has developed a new hardware and software solution
that allows government agencies to confidently use drone technology
while keeping in accordance with stringent
IT and data security requirements.
We call it DJI government edition.”
I mean, it’s essentially the same drone technology,
but now with bigger promises.
“It actually allows us to tell our clients
that all of their telemetry data—
meaning where the drone is flying—
is stored securely and not shared with anyone but them.”
I mean, if DJI got a guy in a Patagonia vest to say it,
it must be true.
Even if that guy is the CEO of a company
that stands to make millions
off of helping government agencies implement DJI drones.
That video, which is targeted at
no...government...in...particular...
does aim to address one of the specific concerns
that the US government just happens to have:
If the US military personnel on covert missions
are using DJI drones in secret locations,
those missions could be compromised
by something as simple as leaked flight logs.
Or shutting down a drone in mid-flight.
“There are U.S. special operators in Syria using DJI products,”
the CEO of Expert Drones told the publication Defense One.
“So I get it.
I’m glad [the Army is] finally doing something about this.”
Because given the growing clarity that China is,
in fact, America's chief strategic adversary,
being hooked on technology that's made in China
may be, well, un-strategic.
And there are fears that the Chinese regime
is secretly installing backdoors in commercial technology
for potential military advantage.
And it certainly wouldn’t be the first time
the Chinese regime has been accused of using
seemingly innocuous commercial technology
to gain a potential advantage.
Huawei.
Sorry. I meant “Huawei”.
The company that makes knockoff iPhones and 5G technology.
The Pentagon’s national security concerns
about Chinese-made drones were echoed
by the Department of Homeland Security in May this year.
Which is several months after DJI
made that video promising the government edition of their drones
is totally secure,
there’s nothing to worry about.
In a notice titled “Chinese Manufactured Unmanned Aircraft Systems,”
Homeland Security warned that U.S. officials
have “strong concerns about any technology product
that takes American data into the territory of an authoritarian state
that permits its intelligence services
to have unfettered access to that data
or otherwise abuses that access.”
That being said, it appears the US government
*has* given security clearance
to the government edition of DJI.
And that’s probably because there just aren’t
good alternatives made in America.
“[The US doesn’t] have much of a small
[Unmanned Aerial System] industrial base
because DJI dumped so many low-price quadcopters on the market,
and we then became dependent on them,”
said Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer,
in a recent press conference.
So how can the US wean itself
off of dependence on Chinese drones?
By diving headlong into the world of American tech startups.
This fall, the Defense Department is launching something
called a “Trusted Capital Marketplace”
to connect investors with small tech firms t
o boost domestic production of small drones.
A kind of Shark Tank,
where even the Pentagon itself can be one of the sharks.
Although the Pentagon will never be
as intimidating as Mark Cuban.
“Mark”
“What are you doing?”
But if you need a million bucks to launch your project
of a tiny drone that shoots massive Hellfire missiles,
the Pentagon can’t wait to hear your pitch.
After all, once they have the drone problem solved,
they can focus on the real threat.
And turn it to their advantage.
So what do you think about the US Army’s
dependence on Chinese drones
and its idea to boost domestic manufacturing
of Unmanned Aerial Systems?
Leave your comments below.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.