Why isn't the U.S. making Drones for the military?

NBC's Rory O'Neill reports that the U.S. has only 4 companies in the U.S. that make drones, and it's not enough. Most are made in China which we can't use

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are just about six forty five. Now, I'm talking
a little bit ago about the whole drone situation. And
I'll be honest with you. What I saw Ukraine do
to Russia a few weeks ago with the freight train
and then the train opens up and the drones. Guy went, wow,
that was pretty dog gone impressive. However, as drones become
more and more important on the battlefield and the whole,
you know, the strategy and technology thing comes together, the

(00:22):
United States apparently not in a real good position here.
NBC News correspondent Roy O'Neil standing by this morning, Rory,
we don't have the stick to do the beaten with,
do we.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well no, not domestically. And look, we used to be
the leaders in this technology. I compare it really to
Detroit in the seventies, right. We used to make the
Lincoln Continental and the Thunderbird and giant cars with big fins.
But then the gas crisis came along and suddenly we
all want Toyota Corollas and bolk flagging rabbits. And that's

(00:53):
what's happening now with the drone technology. We were groundbreaking
when it came to predator drones and deeper drones which
can do incredible things, but those things are the size
of a small plane and cost tens of millions of
dollars each. What we're seeing with Russia and Ukraine is
that they're using stuff that's really very inexpensive technology. But

(01:14):
the idea is, hey, let's throw up one hundred of
these things and if one of them get through mission accomplished,
and that may be the drone warlfare of the future.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Even at the consumer level, you can go out here
for under a couple of hundred bucks and buy a
pretty impressively fast little drone if you just want something
to play with at the park or whatever. So at
you know, the big military level, I would assume it's
not nearly as expensive as it was maybe five years ago.
And with small explosives and targeted attacks with drones, I

(01:45):
would think that the United States would be all over
this kind of technology these days.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Ah well, you can't just run down the best buy
and get one, because the Pentagon does not allow Chinese
technology to be used in American weapons. So d Dji
rather of Shenzen, China makes about seventy percent of commercial
drones sold all over the world, so a lot of

(02:10):
the tech that you see that you said is so cheap,
is Chinese made, and therefore the Pentagon can't use it.
So we've got to find something domestic. There are about
five hundred US companies that make drones, but they produce
fewer than one hundred thousand a year, and really by
military standards, that's not much. And these are startup companies.

(02:31):
They don't have much of a track record. And you know,
they just did this four day test up in Alaska
showing off the technology for the Pentagon. The New York
Times did this report and it shows that a lot
of these tests did not go very well. So there's
sort of a wake up call going on. President Trump
last month signing an executive order unleashing American drone dominance

(02:52):
with the Pentagon realizing we are behind the eight ball here.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
I have to ask, and I don't want to blindside here.
This is roy O'Neil by the way from NBC, but
where did Japan go in this equation? Because you know,
essentially the transistor proudly invented right here in Columbus, Ohio
with Bettel Labs, Japan takes that technology. They are seemingly
a non entity now China seems to be everything.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I would say it's because China doesn't invent. China
copies and they're very good at it. And I think
that because of the size of their population and their
land mass, I think that they're just able to produce
this stuff on an unprecedented scale. Japan, limited by the
size of the islands, doesn't have as much opportunity to

(03:38):
do that. And while they may invent the stuff, the
actual manufacturing of it in the hundreds of thousands and
perhaps millions just automatically shifts to China. You know, we've
seen a lot of that technology when it comes to circuitry,
also move to Asian countries as well. You know, it
was also created here in the US, but the chip
is now largely made overseas.