The White House Wants Drone Dominance. How Much of the Supply Chain Must Be American?

Recent executive orders, FCC action and a White House industry meeting point to growing scrutiny of what goes into U.S.-made drones.

The White House brought drone manufacturers, component suppliers and government officials together Thursday for its first Drone Dominance industry event. The meeting offered another sign that the administration’s push for U.S. drone production extends beyond assembling aircraft.

As Breaking Defense reported, nearly 100 company representatives and government officials attended the event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. About 40 companies participated. Importantly, the gathering included companies producing batteries, cameras, thermal sensors and motors, as well as drone manufacturers.

That mix reflects a larger challenge. Building a domestic drone industry requires an ecosystem capable of supplying the technologies inside the aircraft, along with the materials and software behind them.

From Raw Materials to Finished Drones

A July 20 Executive Order on defense supply chains makes that approach explicit.

The order directs the Department of War to develop rules requiring contractors to map critical supply chains “from raw materials to the end use products.”

Contractors would have to provide a bill of materials tracing “all components, parts, equipment, software, and materials back to the origin of raw materials in their supply chains.”

For drone manufacturers, that can represent a long chain. Electric motors may depend on permanent magnets and the critical minerals needed to produce them. Batteries bring their own materials and manufacturing dependencies. Electronic speed controllers, cameras, communications equipment and other electronics add further layers.

The administration has already identified several of these areas as concerns. An August 13 White House proclamation on UAS imports states that many U.S. commercial drone manufacturers remain “highly dependent on foreign sources” for components including motors, electronic speed controllers, lithium-ion batteries and docking stations.

It also states that “most commercial and industrial UAS, even those produced in the United States, incorporate critical parts and components produced overseas.”

Final assembly in the United States, in other words, does not necessarily mean that the underlying supply chain is domestic.

Military and Commercial Supply Chains Overlap

While the July Executive Order addresses defense procurement, the industrial base supporting military drone production is not neatly separated from the commercial drone industry. Battery, motor, semiconductor and sensor manufacturers can serve multiple markets. Manufacturing facilities, software developers and skilled workers can also support both military and commercial applications.

The August UAS proclamation explicitly recognizes that overlap. It says domestic capacity must expand for products, components and subcomponents to meet anticipated “military and commercial requirements.”

That makes the Drone Dominance push relevant beyond companies competing directly for Department of War contracts. Greater U.S. capacity for batteries, motors, electronics and sensors could also provide new supply options for commercial drone manufacturers.

The White House meeting reflected that broader industrial base, bringing component suppliers together with aircraft manufacturers and government officials.

Software Adds Another Layer

The supply-chain discussion also extends beyond physical components.

The July defense supply-chain order specifically includes software in the information contractors would be required to trace. Meanwhile, separate action by the Federal Communications Commission is increasing scrutiny of software associated with connected equipment.

As DRONELIFE reported this week, the FCC’s Third Report and Order establishes new cybersecurity requirements for certain equipment authorization applications and creates a framework that could affect software associated with equipment on the Covered List.

The FCC action comes under separate legal authority and is not part of the Department of War supply-chain order. Together, however, the actions illustrate how federal security concerns increasingly extend beyond hardware.

For drone companies, the questions are no longer only where an aircraft was assembled, but where its components originated and how its software is developed, maintained and secured.

Building Capacity for Drone Dominance

At the White House event, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Emil Michael emphasized the government’s ambitions.

“The cavalry arrived here to meet your cavalry in private industry to make sure that we are not drone sufficient, from parity, but drone dominant,” Michael said, according to Breaking Defense.

Michael also pointed to further federal investment.

“We’re building up capacity in America to ensure the supply chain is resilient and can serve your needs,” he said, as reported by Breaking Defense.

The emerging picture of Drone Dominance is larger than procurement of finished aircraft. Federal actions now reach into critical materials, components, manufacturing capacity and software. The message from Washington is increasingly clear: U.S. drone production depends on more than who assembles the aircraft. Drone Dominance requires an industrial base capable of supporting the technology from raw materials through manufacturing and software.

Read more:

• Pennsylvania National Guard Becomes Hub for Pentagon’s Drone Dominance Program
• Robinson Unmanned Advances in Drone Dominance Program as Pentagon Focuses on Production at Scale
• Drone Dominance: The Defense Department’s Push to Build a Scalable U.S. Drone Supply Chain