Why US-made drones still depend on Chinese components
“drone technology from from other country or from other countries.”
drone technology from from other country or from other countries. They can't, I mean, in in many cases. So you can build it here. I'd say that, you know, the the the actual problem with a lot of the drones that are being manufactured in The US is that some of the dumb parts, most of them come from China, most of them come from other countries. And that's something that we have to get better at is the component parts that go into these larger systems, even if they're small scale drones. We have to figure out how to manufacture those and incentivize companies to do that. But certainly, there you know, there's companies like Skydio, which is a portfolio company of ours that's been operating for ten, eleven years now, that works with the Department of War and is built in The US. But we do have to think more about what we what we call shifting left, these component parts.
About this clip
A defense industry expert explains the manufacturing challenge facing US drone production: while companies can build drones domestically, most component parts still come from China and other countries. The discussion highlights the need to incentivize domestic manufacturing of these smaller parts to achieve true supply chain independence in defense technology.
Why this clip
Reveals a critical but often overlooked vulnerability in US defense manufacturing that affects national security strategy.
What they said next
If you have fifteen years where everyone says, oh, we're not going to build this or work or the best engineers are not going to go into these companies, then it ultimately leads to a decay. You haven't done research and development. You're not fighting the next theater.
16:48 - 25s · Consequences
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