'They Are Winning': Marsha Blackburn Sounds The Alarm On China Outpacing US In Drone Production

5 months ago

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) spoke about China outpacing the United States in the production of drones.

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00:00were flying unauthorized or recklessly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator Blackburn.

00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I am so pleased that you all are with us today. We do appreciate it.

00:14I want to stay on this issue with the drones and how they are used for good and for bad.

00:21One of the things we are doing is seeing them used with our civil military fusion programs.

00:32And we are concerned about what is happening with the CCP. And they are manufacturing drones in the

00:39millions. And we are doing them in the thousands every year. And we know that China looks

00:51at this as an area where they are winning. And so, Mr. Hardy, let me come to you and talk

01:00a little bit about the importance of us innovating and winning that innovation and production race

01:11so that we have the drones that we need for law enforcement and for warfare.

01:17Thank you, Senator. That is an extremely important issue that we all recognize. The drones made

01:29from the People's Republic of China represent an extremely high share of the market of drones

01:36in the United States. President Trump's recent executive orders are one step in addressing

01:43that issue. There are different agencies working on issues relating to the importation of drones

01:50that are from China and adversary jurisdictions. We take that into account in our procurement

01:56decisions. And I know other agencies within the federal government do as well. So that is

02:00something that we are monitoring. And we are trying to support the use of a secure domestic drone

02:07industrial base. Thank you, Senator. Mr. Willoughby, I want to come to you. And I know Senator Britt

02:13touched on drones and events. And in Tennessee, we have a lot of big concerts, music festivals,

02:23sporting events. And we've had to work with the FAA to make certain that drones are not in certain areas

02:33during certain times. And I know this is, as you were talking about, the ease with which people can

02:41commercially acquire a drone. And this issue becomes more pressing as you look at public safety in these

02:52events. So talk for just a moment about things that legislatively we can tackle to make certain that we

03:03are going to have a standard process for moving forward and securing these public events.

03:11Thank you, Senator, for the question. Two main pieces. The first is that much as we've mentioned already,

03:19you know, federal partners can't be at every event all the time. And so we need to enable those that protect

03:25these events day in and day out. Our state and local partners are empowered and authorized to be able to use

03:31the most advanced technology to understand what's in the airspace and then respond to it accordingly.

03:37This is not different than any other type of technology or vehicle that somebody might use to conduct

03:42criminal activity. If you wanted to drive a car into a crowd of people, then you put up a jersey wall or a

03:48baller to prevent them from going there. We need to have the same mindset when it comes to drones as a normal

03:54part of our physical security parameters and considerations. And right now, they are not legally allowed to use the

04:00technology that's available out there on the marketplace for them to be able to prevent those

04:05types of attacks. And what about drones manufactured in adversarial countries like China, in DJI drones?

04:12It's a serious problem, as Mr. Hardy mentioned. You know, they have an overwhelming share of the marketplace

04:17right now. And it's unclear exactly, you know, how this data is being protected, if at all, and who might be

04:22looking at it from an intelligence or a surveillance or reconnaissance perspective.

04:27Yeah. Mr. Torphy, am I saying your name right?

04:31Yes, Senator.

04:32Okay. Smuggling drugs into state and federal prisons. And as I've talked with individuals that are

04:42handling prisons and prison populations, they've talked about the increasing use of these and the

04:55frustration with that. Can you talk about that and how we address that issue of smuggling drugs

05:06and contraband into prisons using drones?

05:10Yes, Senator. Thank you. And you've had an excellent witness in the last testimony that addressed their

05:16concerns. That is prolific, absolutely prolific, federal, state, local, correctional institutions.

05:22And the FBI gets after that primarily through our violent crime, drug, gang investigations. So we see

05:29those nexus and we action that with technical countermeasures when necessary. But again, it goes back to

05:36how do we get this equipment and more importantly, these authorities to the folks that are actually

05:42protecting these facilities? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Before we adjourn,

05:50there's a couple of cleanup things.

'They Are Winning': Marsha Blackburn Sounds The Alarm On China Outpacing US In Drone Production

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