Washington: The Defence Innovation Unit (DIU) announced February 14 it has selected 37 systems and components to add to its list of commercial drone capabilities certified for military use, pending final approvals to ensure they meet congressionally mandated cybersecurity and supply chain standards.
DIU in November staged a three-day flight demonstration at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Centre, Twenty Nine Palms in California. Following the event, the department selected 23 systems as well as 14 unique drone components, which are now in the midst of a months-long cybersecurity verification process.
Once completed, the approved drones will be added to DIU’s Blue Unmanned Aircraft Systems, or UAS, List and the components to its Blue UAS Framework, making them available for the military services to buy.
“Advocacy for many of these new and enabling technologies continues to be critical for getting capabilities to the warfighter,” DIU said in a statement. “With the cycle for development of new capabilities in this space approaching three months, and current DOD timelines and processes for drone delivery lagging warfighter needs by multiple years, providing warfighters access to capabilities they need now through the Blue List and Framework is even more important.”
Small commercial drones have featured heavily in recent military conflicts, including those in Ukraine and the Middle East. As the market for these capabilities has grown, particularly in China, the US government has been increasingly concerned about the security of the technology and the possibility that data collected by these systems could be shared with adversaries. That concern led to a series of congressional mandates blocking the Pentagon from buying or using certain drone components made by Chinese companies. Units wanting access to commercial drones had to go through an intensive exemption process to get a waiver that lasted only six months before needing to be resubmitted.
