GSA Removes Drones Made in China from Contract Offerings

The General Services Administration (GSA) is no longer purchasing drones from Chinese manufacturers out of concern that they could be used to conduct espionage in the United States. All but five drone suppliers will be removed from the GSA offerings. This plan will go into effect on February 1, 2021.

A GSA spokesperson said, “GSA is removing all identified drones that are not approved through the [Defense Innovation Unit’s] Blue sUAS program from MAS contracts. Affected vendors will be notified by their contracting officer and only the identified drones will be removed from their MAS contract.”

As reported in FEDagent in January 2020, there has been ongoing concern that unmanned aerial vehicles manufactured in China could be able to spy in the U.S. and send confidential information back to China. A majority of drones around the world come from China, and there are concerns that they are used to exploit and put American businesses and organizations at risk.

According to GSA’s outreach site, Interact, “The increase of buying and usage of drones [unmanned aerial vehicle] devices … poses a unique set of challenges and security risks such as: surveillance, theft, disruption and/or use of selective federal information or federal information networks. Also, since China is the dominant manufacturer of drones, there is an increased risk of non-compliance with existing procurement law, including the Trade Agreements Act and Section 889 of the NDAA for FY19.”

Going forward, GSA’s drone offerings will only be from five U.S.-based companies: Altavian, Parrot, Skydio, Teal, and Vantage Robotics.