China

Export controls, the Shenzhen supply chain, and the geopolitics of the world’s drone-manufacturing superpower.

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Oct 22

Last updated

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, seen across the water with a steam cloud billowing beside the pad

Counter-Drone

Space Force Adds Lasers at Cape Canaveral After 500 Port Drone Flights

Space Force is adding a directed-energy weapon at Cape Canaveral. Next door, Port Canaveral logged 500+ drone incursions in 2025, already a Florida felony.

Haye KestelooSep 26

Livox Mid-360L 3D LiDAR sensor, a black square housing topped by a dark hemispherical dome, sitting on a pale grey ledge

DJI

DJI Spinoff Livox Halves Point Rate to Cut Robot LiDAR Cost

Livox's Mid-360L halves the Mid-360's point rate and trades 15° of vertical view for a cheaper robot LiDAR. Livox has not published a price.

Haye KestelooSep 21

DJI Neo 3 retail box held next to a DJI Neo 2 display model on a store stand

DJI

DJI Neo 3 Box Lists Nine Items. The Neo 2's Transceiver Isn't One

New DJI Neo 3 box photos show a Fly More Combo with no Digital Transceiver and China's new Remote ID standards, shot beside a Neo 2 display in a store.

Haye KestelooSep 20

NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft rolling out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center

Drone Incidents

NASA Kennedy Drone Case: Chinese Tourist Pleads Guilty, Faces a Year

Xiaodong He pleaded guilty over a 12-minute drone flight near Kennedy Space Center. Two earlier cases show what sentencing could look like.

Haye KestelooSep 19

Japan

Japan's $110M Global Hawk Drone Crashes on Undisclosed Mission

Japan's first RQ-4B Global Hawk loss: the $110M drone crashed off Tottori three minutes after its link failed. The ASDF won't say what it was doing.

Haye KestelooSep 16

A DJI Mavic 4 Pro hovering between pine trees, the class of consumer drone Beijing residents must give up before November 15

China

Beijing Bans Owning A Drone, Then Offers To Buy Yours Back

Beijing bans drone possession citywide on November 15, voiding the May registration deal and paying owners subsidies to sell at designated buyback sites.

Haye KestelooSep 13

DJI FlyCart 100 drone prepared by ground crew and a Nepal Army soldier on rocky terrain for flood relief supply delivery

Disaster Response

DJI FlyCart 100s Feed Nepal Flood Survivors As US Taxes Them 100%

China answered Nepal's plea with four DJI FlyCart 100s flying up to 16 relief runs a day. The US put the same aircraft in a 100% tariff bracket on Sept. 3.

Haye KestelooSep 11

A heavy-lift cargo drone hangs in a gray sky above Devighat, Nepal, with a bundle of relief supplies suspended on a long line beneath it

Disaster Response

Nepal Asks Abroad For Cargo Drones As China Flies 47 Next Door

Nepal ran its first 220-pound cargo drone test four days after the flood and asked other countries for heavy-lift drones. China had 47 flying by Thursday.

Haye KestelooAug 30

China

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.