US to cut off civilian drones over China Fear

The interior department of the USA came up with the decision that is to halt all the civilian drone program. According to financial time, the department is thinking upon cutting off nearly 1000 drones permanently over the fear of spying by Chinese government officials. Though the government hadn’t published any policy yet, David Bernhardt the interior secretory would limit drone usage except for emergency situations.

Usually, drones are used for less urgent situations like resource tracking and mapping terrain. Drone manufacturing companies are eagerly waiting for comment from the interior department. According to DJI, the largest drone manufacturing company said it was excited to peek through the Department’s drone program review and pinpoint the “absence of credible evidence” that could support the complete ban on China

In 2017 the US army stopped using the drones manufactured by DJI as Homeland Security alleged the company on feeding critical infrastructure and law enforcement to the Chinese Government officials. However, there hadn’t been any public evidence of China opting for the information via drones.

Furthermore, the staff around the Interior Department is resisting the proposition as shutting down the drone program can genuinely disrupt helpful drone activities. For example, Fish and Wildlife department had to cancel the drone flight that would aid in counting animals and monitoring control burns whereas the Geological survey was using the drone for monitoring agriculture and prepping for earthquake and flood response. The US interior department had to either find the US drone and rely upon it or else drop certain projects altogether.

Federal aviation authority or FAA had been working upon new ways on drone tracking but sadly the new techniques by FAA wouldn’t be applicable in three years time frame until then the government is in dire need of changing its policies.