Pentagon barred from buying Chinese equipment.

Signed into law on the 20th of December 2019, the US fiscal year 2020 (FY 2020) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Prevents the US military from buying, operating or renewing contracts for Chinese RPAS, it also covers all the bits.

Flight controllers, radios, data transmission devices, cameras, gimbals, GCS and software.

Most importantly it mentions the transfer of data of any sort back to China or to a Chinese owned company. So just moving the servers won’t work.

Finding RPAS made without any Chinese parts is very difficult. It quickly becomes expensive as well.

But this is an opportunity for manufacturers from the rest of the world to jump.

Why the rest of the world and not America?

The rest of the world is not shackled by export restrictions, they can be complied with, but it is not a matter of buying gear off the shelf and takes months to process.

ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) have handcuffed American drone manufacturers for years. ITAR was the reason 3DR made their autopilots in Mexico. They are the very regulations that have handed China the lead.

Companies from the rest of the world have a much bigger market to address.