The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood has a new report about outwardly mundane purchases of surveillance drones by law enforcement agencies under the Biden administration.
The problem, according to the Pentagon, is that the Chinese manufacturer is considered a possible national security risk.
The Secret Service purchased eight drones from Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) on July 26. The agency’s acquisition came three days after the Defense Department released a statement refuting reports that the U.S. government had approved the purchase of DJI’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and adding that “systems produced by DJI” remained “potential threats to national security.”
The FBI purchased 19 drones from DJI a few days earlier.
Fleetwood continues:
In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security released an intelligence bulletin on the company, warning that DJI was “providing U.S. critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government.” The report also noted with “high confidence” that the company is “selectively targeting government and privately owned entities within these sectors to expand its ability to collect and exploit sensitive U.S. data.”
Concerns over DJI’s threat to national security also caused the Interior Department to ground all non-emergency-use drones in 2019, with U.S. officials sounding the alarm that continued usage of Chinese-based technology “might be putting critical infrastructure at risk” and “sending information back to the Chinese government or hackers elsewhere to use for cyberattacks or other offenses.”
The Chinese drone company was also placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List last year, which designates DJI as a national security concern and officially prohibits U.S.-based companies from exporting technology to the company.
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