China retaliated by sanctioning Skydio, the largest U.S. drone maker, for supplying drones to Taiwan’s National Fire Department.
Adam BrayCEO of Skydio wrote in his blog post while confirming this news: “A few weeks ago, China announced that it would sanction Skydio for selling drones to Taiwan; where our only customer is the National Fire Agency.”
Skydio
According to the Financial Times, the Chinese ban has caused Skydiv to quickly look for new battery suppliers. Although the company makes its drones in the US and sources many of its internal components from outside China, it was completely dependent on a Chinese supplier for batteries until the sanctions.
Bray says his company has a “significant stockpile” of battery cells, but not enough to avoid near-term restrictions, and replacement suppliers won’t be up until “spring next year.” As a result, Skydiv has to ship the X10 flagship drone with only one battery for now.
The Ukrainian military is said to be one of the customers of the X10 drones, which planned to use thousands of them for reconnaissance missions.
Skydiv’s relationship with Taiwan may have been just an excuse to counter China. Earlier, the US government banned the entry of drones made by the Chinese company DJI. In mid-October, DJI filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s designation of the company as a “Chinese military company.”
