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The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

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Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#281
post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends. Is he actually fighting 450,000,000 in the EU? Is Portugal going to send troops to the front lines in Estonia? Will Germans accept being drafted to go fight in Ukraine? These are serious questions. Meanwhile Putin is very much able to draft Russians to fight wars, and god-forbid he takes over Ukraine he'll send Ukrainians too.

>"Will Germans accept being drafted to go fight in Ukraine" Ukraine is not in EU. As for the rest - if they don't then, well, they were just hiding behind the US with all the consequences.

And in this case the US participation should come. Wouldn't be better to fight a Putin's Russia that was weakened in Ukraine? Perhaps weakened so much, that Putin's won't attack at all. Perhaps weaken so much, that the US can scale down its European military force deployment (saving money) and concentrate on other things (China).

So yeah, US investments in Ukraine directly benefit America. Ukrainians are fighting for Americans. So much so, that they are destroying Russia's nuclear weapons capabilities (destroying radars, strategic bombers, submarines and ships, weapons arsenal, ballistic rockets, carriers of nuclear weapons like Iskanders).

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just looking at the injection molded shell of my Mavic Mini makes me cringe when thinking about the startup cost. It's the plastic shell; not the motors, nor the circuitry, nor the optical parts...and to think you could build that in the USA is laughable. DJI releases 2-3 models every 2-3 years... if you could even find a company in the USA machining the steel molds at that frequency (i don't think it exists) how are…

We'll just let Boeing build them. They have the know-how. Plus, if we're talking military drones vs civilian drones, they wouldn't need plastic shells. That'd just be more weight reducing distance. Then again, military industrial complex would probably try to make them stealth capable, be designed by committee from 22 nation states, be micro-USB mandated to comply with EU standards, blah blah. Yeah, you're right, we'…

Boeing's expertise will come handy when it comes to designing kamikaze drones.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're hard to develop . That is proven by the fact that DJI is by far the industry leader, and everyone else is trailing. We're not talking about duct-taping a Go Pro to an OTS drone.

Just looking at the injection molded shell of my Mavic Mini makes me cringe when thinking about the startup cost. It's the plastic shell; not the motors, nor the circuitry, nor the optical parts...and to think you could build that in the USA is laughable. DJI releases 2-3 models every 2-3 years... if you could even find a company in the USA machining the steel molds at that frequency (i don't think it exists) how are…

I'm confused. Machining molds is not a lost or obscure technology.

A skilled machinist (and the US has many) used to be able do it in any moderately-equipped machine shop.

Is there something new and magic about modern injection molding?

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* died while trying to flee from their crime.

In the USA we don't condone extra-judicial killings, especially by our government officials.

It's not extra judicial when they're literally criminals in captivity or fleeing from it.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both making and removing regulation boosts my business, as my clients care about changes. That said, I assure you that one regulation getting made out of millions has no effect on my bottom line. The drone thing is a personal opinion. If the US ends up in a war (whether it’s one I agree with or not, likely not), I don’t want millions of drones to be remote controllable by the folks we’re fighting.

This is silly. You are worried that china will remotely control my DJI mini during a war? How will it even get out of my closet to create such havoc for 26 minutes before it drops out of the sky begging me for a new battery?

I'm honestly much more worried about the fact that China has access to production lines for zillions of the things than what they'd do with existing ones, but I did make the comment so I'll run with it =).

Let's put on our fun James Bond villain hats for a bit.

The US has around 1.75MM drones that people have bothered to register. DJI has around 75% of that, so call it 1.25MM. This registration program is relatively new so let's say 750K of those are still operable.

How many of those are in the air at any given time? Keep in mind many of these bigger registered drones are used by businesses.

Let's say it's 1%, so 7,500 drones suddenly open some backdoor and get commanded to do a nose dive for the nearest power line. Now add in the smaller ones that are less likely to do damage, but there are 10x as many. Now combine it with a simultaneous cyber attack on infrastructure, and some pre-planned terror attacks.

Is it going to end the country? Of course not. Is there potential for that to cause huge chaos? I think so.

Is that more absurd than the Hezbollah pager bombings? I don't think so.

So yeah, I'd pay more for my drones, my cars, my cell phone towers, etc etc to avoid them being controlled by a country that we might end up in a stupid war with. I'm not saying you can make everything locally in the modern world, that's absurd. But there are valid strategic and natsec concerns about the US/China trade relationship in 2025.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA we don't condone extra-judicial killings, especially by our government officials.

It's not extra judicial when they're literally criminals in captivity or fleeing from it.

Judicial, i.e. the courts. What isn't judicial is law enforcement determining/imposing sentences on their own, at the scene of 'crime'.

One is a system of laws and justice.

The other, which you are arguing in defense of, is a police state with unchecked authority given to police/no system of balance.

What you are defending is an un-American policing system. Something more in line with the Judge Dredd comics (the point of which is that sort of thing is bad, in case you miss it).

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#287
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the title of the article really buries the lead as this is a much bigger deal than banning new versions of fully assembled drones made by a Chinese company. I can’t even think of another country that makes 4S Lipo batteries or the motors or the ESC’s or the VTX or the GPS module..

Yup, it essentially defacto bans civilian drones - unless something pretty major changes with domestic manufacturing anyway.

No, I imagine that they will start assembling the pcbs in Vietnam from Chinese chips

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will believe this argument when everything else from domestic appliances to phones is not also made by “their primary political adversary”.

So Apple trying to move iPhone production to places like Vietnam does not count? Apple already makes some of their devices in Vietnam now (not iPhone yet.) These things can't happen over night. This decoupling might take decades. Or just be abandoned by the next administration. Who knows?

Will Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers be less involved in Vietnam? How much less?

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#289
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> as China helps Russia with its invasion of Ukraine America is helping Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.

By only giving Ukraine $175,000,000,000, instead of $500B? Or $1T and American boots on the ground? When has American done enough to fight Ukraine’s war for them?

In the past, Biden administration gave help to Ukraine. Trump stopped it entirely.

Second, Trump is very much helping Russia, literally taking Russian positions in negotiations and pressuring only on Ukraine - into bad deals.

Trump also talks admirably about Putin. So no, America switched sides.

Re: The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's lacking authenticity is your assertion a well informed political cult engaged in gaming the system for its own benefit is not working multiple narratives. If it was just about China they would not be turning TikTok, CBS into right wing platforms. They would not be announcing intent to violate 4th Amendment and go door to door without warrants. Trump doesn't actually care about China. He prays on idiots fears w…

> "lacking authenticity" I am sharing my genuine opinions and perspectives. I assume you are as well. Let's keep it civil. As for tiktok/etc, I don't think that has much of anything to do with ICE and has a lot more to do with squelching legitimate anti-zionist speech. That said, it does plausibly have a lot more to do with domestic protests than a DJI drone ban, which is hardly a blanket ban on drones, and really wi…

Nice job editing the comment I replied to after the fact.
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