Prohibits Use of Such in Indian-Made Drones

Citing security concerns, officials of India’s Ministry of Defense have prohibited Indian manufacturers of military drones from using components made in China.

A group of Indian defense and industry officials set forth the country’s intelligence and security agencies collectively posited Indian intelligence-gathering efforts could be compromised by Chinese-made parts in drones' communication arrays, cameras, radio transmissions, and operating software.

India’s concerns vis-à-vis the security risks inherent Chinese drones and Chinese-made drone components are shared by numerous Western governments.

In April 2023, Florida’s state legislature enacted a law banning Sunshine State government agencies from utilizing drones made by a “foreign country of concern,” which is to tacitly state China and strongly imply DJI—a company broadly accused of collaborating with the Chinese Communist Party and added, in December 2021, to a U.S. Treasury Department blacklist on account of its drones retaining features conducive to espionage. 

Florida Senate Bill 44, now section 934.50 of Florida’s statutes, put in place standards and rules pertaining to the use of drones by the state’s government agencies, law enforcement, fire departments, and other public entities. Many statutes contained in the legislation were previously in place and range from the codification of systems by which to publicly disseminate images or videos captured by drones to the proper storage of drones.

The bill’s final provisions went into effect on 10 April and specify those drone models alternately approved and prohibited by Florida’s state legislature.

FMI: www.mod.gov.in