China is running away with critical drone technology while the U.S. struggles to even get into the race, with experts warning that the technological gap spells a “nightmare” scenario for America’s military on the battlefield.
Chinese company Da Jiang Industries (DJI) currently controls 70% of the worldwide commercial drone market alone, and American drone companies specializing in defense applications still rely heavily on Chinese parts to make their products, according to Forbes. The U.S.’ inability to match China’s drone production poses a major threat to national security, according to defense experts, with one source of the problem being the military’s insistence on developing “exquisite” weapons systems that have big price tags.
“China has captured 90% of the global market for small civilian drones by directly subsidizing drone manufacturers,” Bret Boyd, CEO of defense-oriented logistics firm Sustainment, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This has allowed them to be extremely competitive on price, undercutting most of their competitors and receiving huge benefits from economies of scale. This has been happening for decades.”
The 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) included a review of the effect of using Chinese-made parts for domestic drone manufacturing, with DJI saying in a press release that the law was based on “xenophobic fear.” New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik attempted to add formal restrictions on Chinese parts into the NDAA, but the law only passed the house before stalling in the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
DJI sued the Pentagon in October over its inclusion on the department’s Chinese military company list. The case is ongoing.
The U.S. currently utilizes mostly high-cost, plane-like drones such as the MQ-9 Reaper, which specializes in air-to-ground attacks with missiles. An MQ-9 costs around $56.5 million to build per unit, according to the Air Force.
Since October 2023, Houthi rebels in Yemen have brought down at least six Reaper drones, according to ABC News in April. Meanwhile, Houthis have found great success with small, cheaply-made drones, with some having the range to fly nearly 16 hours to targets in Israel, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ALCED).
Moreover, the Houthis have killed an estimated 470 people with suicide drones since 2016, according to ALCED. By contrast, the drones can cost as little as $2,000, experts told Politico in 2023.
The enormous gap in the cost to wage war presents a unique national security risk that the Pentagon must urgently tackle, Boyd told the DCNF.
“Our military has become far too reliant on exquisite, expensive weapon systems that can only be built by a very small percentage of the American industrial base,” Boyd told the DCNF. “While this was appropriate for the Cold War, we need to adapt to the realities of combat in 2025. Ukraine is showing us that the modern battlefield is going to be dominated by ‘good enough’ technology deployed at scale.”
Cheap drones have fundamentally changed the battlefield, most exemplified by their extensive use in the Russia-Ukraine war beginning in 2022. The drones allowed Ukrainian and Russian soldiers alike to deal with tanks and other armored vehicles without exposing themselves with traditional anti-tank weapons systems like rocket launchers, according to The New York Times.
“These drones allow these service members to destroy a tank from 20 kilometers away,” William Thibeau, director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute and Army Ranger veteran, told the DCNF. “When you’re used to being threatened at only two and a half kilometers away, it changes the whole dynamic of how you move around and how you find cover and concealment.”
The air duel.
A Ukrainian FPV drone destroyed a russian Lancet drone that tried to escape its fate.
: 93rd Mechanized Brigade pic.twitter.com/R8BfrGIMNE
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) October 30, 2024
: 93rd Mechanized Brigade In the Bakhmut region alone in Ukraine, drones killed nearly 210 Russian Wagner Group mercenaries and wounded 360 more over the course of months in mid-2023, the NYT reported.
“The question is, are we ready for drone on drone warfare, or are we still putting humans in the loop?,” a former defense engineer granted anonymity to freely discuss U.S. military policy, told the DCNF. “Because as far as I know, we’re still putting humans out there, and human against drone is a nightmare.”
The U.S. armed forces have already made some headway into adopting small drones for combat, with the Army creating “hunter-killer” platoons equipped with drones used for mainly reconnaissance. Most recently, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the Army to investigate the use of “low-cost” drones in strike applications as part of a $36 billion overhaul of the service branch.
“Ukraine set up this infrastructure from basically nothing, and it happened in garages, and they set it up in less than two years,” Thibeau told the DCNF. “We don’t want to figure this out after the shooting starts.”
The Pentagon did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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