FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Drone Service Providers Alliance urges AUVSI to restore balance, prioritize operators and first responders, and pursue cybersecurity standards based on risk rather than country of origin
With the announced departure of Michael Robbins as President and CEO of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the organization faces an important choice: continue the reckless policy direction of recent years or use this transition to rebuild its relationship with American drone operators, small businesses, public safety agencies, educators, engineers, and other end users.
The Drone Service Providers Alliance (DSPA) believes this moment should mark a reset.
Before Mr. Robbins’ tenure, AUVSI was positioned to become a powerful voice for the U.S. commercial drone industry, including the thousands of small businesses and professional drone service providers turning UAS technology into real economic and public safety value.
Instead, DSPA believes AUVSI’s advocacy increasingly prioritized restrictions on Chinese-manufactured drones and domestic manufacturing policy without adequately considering the consequences for those actually using drones in the field.
Those consequences were never theoretical.
Commercial remote pilots, infrastructure inspectors, engineers, surveyors, educators, recreational flyers, and public safety agencies rely on aircraft chosen for their capabilities, reliability, availability, and cost. Removing those tools before viable and affordable replacements exist places significant burdens on American businesses and can affect first responders performing critical public safety missions.
DSPA has been particularly concerned by AUVSI’s repeated focus on DJI and other Chinese-manufactured UAS as national security threats. National security and cybersecurity deserve serious attention. But serious concerns require evidence, careful analysis, and proportionate solutions.
Claims about the security risks of specific manufacturers should be supported by transparent evidence and rigorous technical scrutiny, not used as a substitute for comprehensive cybersecurity standards.
During Mr. Robbins’ tenure, his congressional testimony and public appearances repeatedly emphasized Chinese technology and the need to strengthen American drone manufacturing. DSPA supports building a strong and competitive American UAS manufacturing base.
Where we differ is the suggestion that strengthening American manufacturing requires weakening American operators.
America should build more drones. America should build better drones. America should invest aggressively in domestic manufacturing and secure supply chains. But American drone service providers, first responders, educators, and small businesses should not become collateral damage while that industrial base is built.
These goals are not mutually exclusive.
The United States can pursue a robust domestic manufacturing capability while maintaining access to capable foreign-manufactured aircraft when American alternatives cannot yet meet an operator’s technical, operational, or economic requirements.
Most importantly, cybersecurity policy should focus on what an aircraft does, what data it collects, where that data goes, how it communicates, and whether those systems can be independently verified, not simply the country where the aircraft was manufactured.
DSPA supports meaningful cybersecurity protocols for drones operating around sensitive facilities and other areas of concern. Those standards should be rigorous, transparent, technically defensible, and applicable to every remote aircraft operating in sensitive environments, regardless of country of origin.
A secure drone is a secure drone. An insecure drone is an insecure drone. The logo on the aircraft should not substitute for technical verification. A prefect example is the recent security lapse of LAPD’s DFR program. LAPD mistakenly made their video feeds from the DFR program publicly available. And those were Skydio drones. Should we blame Skydio? Of course not. But it’s full proof that it’s the person setting up the program, NOT the aircraft they chose for that program that is the security issue.
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A Call for New Leadership and a New Direction
As the AUVSI Board searches for its next permanent President and CEO, DSPA strongly encourages consideration of candidates who understand both aviation regulation and the extraordinary pace of autonomous and robotic technology development.
Equally important, AUVSI’s next leader must recognize drone service providers as a central constituency, not an afterthought or impediment to their corporate strategy.
Drone service providers are on the front lines every day. They navigate FAA regulations, customer requirements, insurance demands, equipment limitations, cybersecurity concerns, rapidly changing technology, and the economics of operating small businesses.
- They know which policies work because they operate under them.
- They know where technology succeeds because they put it to work.
- They know where regulations create unintended consequences because they experience them firsthand.
Their practical experience must have a meaningful place in AUVSI’s advocacy, policy development, and strategic direction. Without genuine representation from service providers, an organization claiming to speak for the American drone industry risks becoming further disconnected from the people responsible for much of its day-to-day adoption.
The departure of a CEO is more than a personnel change. It is an opportunity for AUVSI to decide what, and whom, it intends to represent.
DSPA hopes AUVSI chooses to become a more balanced voice in Washington: one that champions American manufacturing without abandoning American operators, takes national security seriously while demanding evidence, supports first responders’ access to critical technology, and develops cybersecurity policy based on measurable risk rather than geography.
The American drone industry does not need another fight between “American drones” and “Chinese drones.”
It needs good drones. Secure drones. Affordable drones. Competitive American manufacturers. Strong domestic supply chains. Sensible regulations. And policies that allow American businesses and public safety agencies to keep doing their jobs while our domestic industrial base grows.
AUVSI has an opportunity to help build that future.
The ball is in AUVSI’s court. The entire drone industry will be watching what it does next.
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About the Drone Service Providers Alliance
The Drone Service Providers Alliance (DSPA) advocates for professional drone service providers and works to ensure operators and small businesses are represented in regulatory, legislative, and industry policy discussions affecting the commercial UAS community.
