Washington may want America to move beyond DJI, but one big question keeps hanging over the debate: who can realistically replace the company’s affordable, widely used drones at the same scale?
That question sits at the center of a filing submitted to the Federal Communications Commission by Unmanned Vehicle Technologies (UVT), one of the country’s largest drone dealers and public safety drone integrators.
Founded by Chris Fink out of a spare bedroom, UVT has grown into a nationwide operation with more than 45 employees and contractors spread across 13 states. And notably, the company says that growth was made possible in large part because affordable, capable drones from companies like DJI helped create an accessible commercial drone market in the first place.
But that doesn’t mean that the Arkansas-based company is dismissing national security concerns around Chinese technology. In fact, UVT repeatedly acknowledges the FCC’s responsibility to investigate cybersecurity and communications risks. But the company argues that any move to effectively freeze DJI out of the US market should be based on publicly verifiable evidence, not assumptions tied solely to the company’s Chinese origins.
