16 April 2025
If you're a drone company trying to follow Donald Trump's "America First" mandate—good luck.
At present, China controls approximately 90 percent of the commercial drone market across the planet, and the country also makes a significant amount of the airframes, batteries, and other essential hardware needed to manufacture drones.
China could shut down the drone industry globally for a year,” said Trent Emeneker, a team leader at the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit.
Of course, this type of scenario is what the Trump Administration's tariffs are supposed to fight off, as it seeks to encourage American companies to source parts and build drones on U.S. soil. Unfortunately, building American drones here at home using solely U.S.-made parts could take years and a hefty level of investment. In the meantime, a Commerce Department chief legal officer Jai Ramaswamy has stated: “Immediately removing all foreign adversary-based sources of supply for critical drone components would have a catastrophic effect on the American drone industry."
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