FAQs
What is the Partnership for American Drone Competitiveness?
The Partnership represents a coalition of U.S. drone and drone component manufacturers and enterprise users of drones engaged in government affairs and advocacy at the federal and state levels to enhance competitiveness for the U.S. commercial drone industry. Partners support shared policy goals that will level the playing field against subsidized international competition.
Why is greater support for American drones needed?
The U.S. leads in commercial, business, and general aviation manufacturing and has a total aviation workforce of more than half a million people. But there is one segment of the aviation industry that the United States does not lead: uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and domestic drone manufacturing and operations. While the U.S. has been content to maintain leadership of traditional segments in the aviation industry, China understood the tremendous economic and national security implications of uncrewed aviation and took aggressive measures to dominate the global UAS manufacturing and technology market.
Why does competitiveness for American drones matter?
Enabling U.S. leadership in the drone industry represents a strategic imperative for U.S. global competitiveness and security. From the perspective of U.S. competitiveness and security, incentivizing U.S. leadership in the drone industry represents a strategic imperative in a market long characterized by state-subsidized companies based in China that have access to virtually unlimited, free to low-cost capital.
China's success in stifling U.S. development of critical autonomous technologies has resulted in an emerging series of threats to the U.S. — including threats to national security, the nation’s position as a global leader in aviation, to its aviation workforce, and to its democratic values and fundamental principles of human rights.
Are there national security implications that come with the use of Chinese drones?
Yes. China’s dominance of the electronics supply chain, including drones, is harming U.S. national security interests. The United States government ― the White House, DoD, DOJ, and Congress ― have all deemed Chinese-made drones as a threat to national security.
How has China supported their domestic drone industry?
In 2015, China launched “Made in China 2025,” a ten-year whole-of-society effort to invest in key industries, primarily in the technology area, to ensure China’s world leadership and market dominance. China has removed red tape to development while enabling sophisticated market mechanisms to spur rapid growth. While much of the discussion on Chinese government involvement in the industry has centered around direct subsidization, the scope of their support is far greater. No Chinese company or investment firm is free of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) involvement. The CCP has used its influence to:
- Direct investment firms to invest heavily in drones and component parts;
- Direct banks to provide low-interest loans to industry participants;
- Direct companies to build Chinese domestic supply chains;
- Direct companies to buy domestically to meet domestic market share targets;
- Direct companies to spend a high percentage of their revenue on research and development;
- Direct companies to partner with high-tech industry to ensure an end-market; and
- Direct state-owned companies to acquire and transfer western technology.
While this infrastructure has developed a robust internal industry for uncrewed systems in China, it has also allowed them to project their influence abroad and use their monopolistic position to put U.S. manufacturers at a disadvantage by flooding the global market with subsidized drones. This is an illegal trade practice the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) labels as “dumping.”
How will these proposals bolster the U.S. domestic commercial drone industry?
The Partnership’s concrete policy proposals will help to ensure U.S. companies can compete and win in the marketplace, including via:
(1) Provide tax incentives, grant programs and other mechanisms that spur the accelerated development of the U.S. drone industry and worker training, including for first responders, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and public safety agencies, and infrastructure inspection;
(2) Invest in infrastructure and capital expenditures that support domestic manufacturing;
(3) Ensure the availability of critical rare earth materials;
(4) Initiate cross-agency collaboration and research;
(5) Initiate conversations and collaboration internationally to determine ways to work together; and
(6) Ensure suitable transition periods, inclusive of funding to help alleviate the cost of transitioning from foreign-made UAS fleets to domestic-made ones.
Who else benefits when American drones can compete?
The Partnership’s proposed policies will enable change for markets beyond drones, including for other emerging technologies.
These recommendations will also open supply chains for electronic components and rare earth materials that can be utilized by other international drone and electronics markets outside the United States that are also struggling to compete with subsidized Chinese competition and its dominance of the global electronics supply chain.
How will the Partnership continue to support international members and partners?
The proposed policies will enable change for markets beyond drones, including other autonomous and uncrewed vehicles, as well as other emerging technologies, which often use many of the same components and technology stacks.
The recommendations in this paper will open supply chains for electronic components and rare earth materials that can be utilized by other international drone and electronics markets outside the United States that are also struggling to compete with subsidized Chinese competition and its dominance of the global electronics supply chain. We encourage the U.S. government to coordinate these activities with allied and partner nations, consistent with Washington’s approach to semiconductor reshoring, to generate a stronger, more secure supply chain.
What about agencies and first responders that are using Chinese made drones for public safety missions?
Congress should enact a new program designed to help public safety agencies transition from using Chinese drones to U.S.-made solutions. This program could borrow lessons from the Supply Chain Reimbursement Program which “reimburses providers of advanced communications services … incurred in the removal, replacement, and disposal of communications equipment and services produced or provided by Huawei Technologies Company (Huawei) or ZTE Corporation (ZTE).”
This new program should be funded appropriately to ensure sufficient annual funding to ensure that a) public safety agencies can begin to replace and upgrade drone fleets, and b) U.S. domestic drone manufacturing can meet demand in terms of both production capability and drone reliability and capability.
What is the role of the airspace regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)?
The FAA must take steps to streamline approval processes and minimize the bureaucratic barriers to the successful integration of drones. Congress can assist by giving the FAA additional tools, authorities, and resources to accomplish this mission. Such tools should include mechanisms to help the FAA implement 2023 FAA Reauthorization efforts/mandates. Making progress on drone operational integration will spur investment into the drone industry, including manufacturing and workforce development in the United States.