D.O.D. Releases List of 5 “Trusted” [non-DJI] Drone Options

Kristina Fowler · Aug 21, 2020

Just ran across this. I recently lost a nice contract because my client got spooked by all the negative data-swiping/security news swirling about DJI drones and sending it back to the Chinese mainland. Hoping to get some opinions from users of any of these 5 drones on flight characteristics, ease of use, and image quality. Pros and Cons.Thanks in advance....

Full Article: Government Approved Drones: U.S. Dept. of Defense Releases List of 5 “Trusted” Drone Options

"The list of products, referred to as “Blue sUAS,” come from 5 different manufacturers: Skydio, Parrot, Altavian, Teal Drones, and Vantage Robotics."

clolsonus · Aug 21, 2020

The CEO of 3D Robotics posts that all of these 5 choices are based on the pixhawk/dronecode architecture:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1296502071626067969

The dronecode (px4) software is open-source and has contributions from all over the world.

Recoveryone · Aug 22, 2020

Just about each of the drone on the list are high dollar enterprise level drones. Skydio, is the only one that is still a pro-consumer type drone, but its major drawback is its camera quality. The number one thing I find odd, all of these drones listed have Chinese parts inside, so is this about real security or just political/trade hand slapping on a company that has over 90% of the drone market.

dronecyclops · Aug 22, 2020

Recoveryone said:
Just about each of the drone on the list are high dollar enterprise level drones. Skydio, is the only one that is still a pro-consumer type drone, but its major drawback is its camera quality. The number one thing I find odd, all of these drones listed have Chinese parts inside, so is this about real security or just political/trade hand slapping on a company that has over 90% of the drone market.

I knew skydio has Chinese parts didn't know the rest had also

clolsonus · Aug 22, 2020

Recoveryone said:
Just about each of the drone on the list are high dollar enterprise level drones. Skydio, is the only one that is still a pro-consumer type drone, but its major drawback is its camera quality. The number one thing I find odd, all of these drones listed have Chinese parts inside, so is this about real security or just political/trade hand slapping on a company that has over 90% of the drone market.

One random thought about security. If I'm a military dude flying a drone somewhere dangerous and I want to be super secure and not give my position away, I don't want my ipad connected to the internet ... ever. Something as dumb as an open-street-map server could notice that someone is pulling in the highest detailed imagery for a really interesting hot spot around (lon, lat) ... hmmm. And a weather server gets a request for conditions at (lon, lat). And an ADSB server gets a request for air traffic at (lon, lat) and some mapstitching service gets an upload of a bunch of images from (lon, lat). So for military use, sure don't buy off the shelf systems that need internet connected devices and 3rd party apps, duh. On the other hand px4 + q-groundcontrol station use a variety of public services to feed data onto the displays ... so all of this (to me) seems to be more about the illusion of security rather than security itself. Or given today's climate, maybe we need to consider some high level petty beef is playing out and security is a "not quite 100% satisfying" explanation for what's going on. (i.e. let's not discus politics here, but maybe politics?)

ECHO · Aug 22, 2020

Probably hard pressed to find a transistor that isn’t made in China these days. Wonder how they drew the line to allow these few?
Some are Enterprise level and very expensive. One is small and too light, most cameras are inferior, and another takes at least 6 months to receive after placing your order.. :/

skiptv · Aug 22, 2020

None of those drones except for the Parrot are in Production. So how did they get approval? Skydio got a $100 million in funding one month ago. Now they are on the USA go list? This was never ever about security. Sucks for the 100s of small businesses that have Gov contracts, that fly DJI Drones.

dirkclod · Aug 23, 2020

clolsonus said:
(i.e. let's not discus politics here, but maybe politics?)

Correct on both points.

Bobby A. · Aug 23, 2020

One of the best designed and most reliable birds is not on that list. Freely Alta. Our company operates over 60+ of the Alta 6s and 8s. uur pilots in the U.S alone averaging hundreds of flights a day.

Meta4 · Aug 24, 2020

skiptv said:
None of those drones except for the Parrot are in Production. So how did they get approval?

That's how they maintain their perfect security record.

PatR · Aug 25, 2020

Individual components making up an assembly are not a security threat. Many times they can create reliability issues, but not security.

Anything requiring a direct link to the web, be it for authorizations, updates, telemetry records, applications, or other purposes does present security issues.

If it cannot be isolated it will take a back seat to anything that can.