amazing that you only have to spend a million dollars for this result. I guess having the tailwinds of American politicans losing their shit over China helps.

This is being sold as a security measure, but it's really a heavily-lobbied economic measure to benefit a single American drone company.

Aren’t DJI drones used by like, every emergency service in the US with a need for drones?

Skydio

nothing creepy about naming your drone company "sky god"

For those of us who don’t remember high school US history very well:

[Passed in 1930] The Act and tariffs imposed by America's trading partners in retaliation were major factors of the reduction of American exports and imports by 67% during the Great Depression. Economists and economic historians have a consensus view that the passage of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff worsened the effects of the Great Depression.

In their opinion it doesn't matter.

Firstly because either the US is going to war with China within the next 8 years or it's not happening because the US would be at such a disadvantage and like all bullies they won't pick a fight with an evenly matched opponent. Secondly because military drone systems used by the US are not really like those used by other countries. For example, Russia and Ukraine are using near off the shelf kit and standing in a field while US drones are controlled from a bunker or command shack or place on a US navy ship from a system that looks like it's from a Dave and Busters racing game with the whole big seat, multiple monitors, joy-stick and additional controls. US is just not interested in that kind of drone warfare. They've gone all in on the idea of semi-autonomous "AI" systems and swarms controlled by 1-2 trained people per swarm from a great distance. Thirdly the US has long had this image of it's military as this highly trained, highly disciplined, elite force while simultaneously seeing Russians/Chinese as "hordes" of under-trained, under-motivated, under-equipped canon fodder so they turn up their nose to certain types of tactics as being for those others.

Fourth, the US is worried about domestic insurrection and discontent over worsening economic conditions. The worse thing you want to do in that situation is empower the ordinary people to wage insurrection using the type of tactics and methods (drones) field-proven by unconventional militias and militant groups across the middle east. These types of drones and easy cheap access to them is also a nightmare for operational security of military bases and internal security forces operations.

Unironically the US wants and is working hard on killbots they can fire and forget for attacks and area denial. They know among other things they can't fight China navy to navy over Taiwan so instead the plan shifts to this idea of naval and aerial drones, semi-autonomous that are basically killbots or self-propelled targeting mines that they'd unleash in the hundreds and thousands in the straits to deny China the ability to send landing craft or support ships near Taiwan and buy them time to hold the island and strike at and destroy China's navy from beyond the horizon. This is actually not a bad answer to the problem of traditional mining that mine-sweeper ships can just clear an area, mine-sweepers don't work if the mines actively hone in on and swarm your clearing ship when you get anywhere near any of them.

The US military is not agile in the way the Russian military or the Ukrainian bandits are. It's a big, expensive, lumbering machine and that's the way they like it and that's the way it's going to be because it produces more profit for Raytheon and because it suits their self-image.

The real losers are local EMS, fire, cops, even the FBI who get hit in the budget much harder acquiring drones now.

These are not the same drones used lol

Ukraine uses them cause they're poor and need to be scrappy

America ain't gonna do this

High schoolers will just have to learn to be a soldier the true and tested, old American way

This is almost as dumb as the tariffs on Chinese solar panels and electric cars from earlier in the year.

shark week but instead they vote to import blahajs

Only sales is blocked. My drone is already out of support, and works fine without internet. So if this passes it won’t affect me.