Yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt sent a memo to the Assistant Secretaries and Bureau Heads informing them that only approved drones, so-called Blue sUAS are exempt from the PMB approval and reporting procedures, opening the door for the Department of the Interior to rebuild its drone fleet and start using it again for non-emergency missions.
Updated with a response from DJI.
Hat tip to Drone Life.
According to an internal memo, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s decision not to buy more drones with Chinese parts has made it more difficult to fight wildfires. The memo exposes one consequence of the Trump administration’s crackdown on Chinese tech, which includes Chinese-made drone parts.
The Department of the Interior’s drone order, which temporarily halted all non-emergency unmanned aircraft systems fleet operations, creates confusion for shark researchers in Cape Cod who use drones to spot and study sharks along the coastline. The Cape Cod National Seashore is administered by the National Park Service, which in turn is an operating unit of the United States Department of the Interior.
In this podcast, Brendan Schulman, Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs at DJI, talks about drones, the history of DJI, China, data security, regulatory challenges, and a host of other issues. If you are active in the drone industry or are a drone enthusiast this is a must-listen podcast. The entire episode is a little less than an hour so make sure you reserve some time. If you don’t have time to listen, you can read some of the highlights below.
Update: apparently there also was a video version of this conversation. This one is even more informative. Check it out below.