When wildfires tore through the Los Angeles area earlier this year, killing dozens and destroying thousands of structures, the state’s emergency responders reached for every tool they had. Drones were among them. But many of those unmanned aircraft were made by DJI, the Chinese manufacturer that dominates the global commercial drone market — and that fact has become a serious problem for California officials navigating a tangle of national security concerns, supply chain vulnerabilities, and the urgent need to protect lives.
Now California is making a bet. A big one.
The state has signed a deal with Inspired Flight Technologies, a Kansas City–based drone manufacturer, to supply American-made drones for wildfire detection and emergency response, according to Futurism. The contract is part of a broader push to replace Chinese-manufactured drones in sensitive government operations — a movement that has gained momentum in Congress, at the Pentagon, and across state capitols in recent months.
The timing isn’t accidental. Federal lawmakers have been escalating pressure on DJI and other Chinese drone makers for years, citing concerns that flight data collected by these aircraft could be funneled to Beijing’s intelligence services. The Countering CCP Drones Act, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024, would effectively ban new DJI drones from operating on American communications networks by adding the company to the Federal Communications Commission’s “covered list.” The bill hasn’t yet cleared the Senate, but its passage in the House sent a clear signal to state and local governments: start planning for a post-DJI future.
California, the most wildfire-prone state in the nation, couldn’t afford to wait.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has framed the Inspired Flight deal as both a national security measure and a practical upgrade. The drones will be equipped with thermal imaging, LiDAR sensors, and real-time data transmission capabilities designed specifically for fire detection and situational awareness during active burns. Inspired Flight’s IF1200A model, a heavy-lift hexacopter, can carry multiple sensor payloads simultaneously and operate in conditions — high winds, heavy smoke, extreme heat — that would ground smaller consumer-grade aircraft.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth that state officials are less eager to discuss: American-made drones are significantly more expensive than their Chinese counterparts, and the domestic manufacturing base is still catching up in terms of scale. A DJI Matrice 350 RTK, widely used by fire departments and law enforcement agencies, retails for roughly $11,000. Comparable American-made platforms often cost two to five times as much. For cash-strapped municipal fire departments, that price gap matters.
“The cost differential is real, and it’s not trivial,” said a senior official at the National Council of State Legislatures who tracks drone policy, speaking on background. “But the security argument has won the day in most state procurement offices.”
And the security argument is potent. DJI drones have been found operating in sensitive airspace near military installations. The Department of Defense banned their use by the U.S. military back in 2017. The Department of the Interior grounded its entire fleet of Chinese-made drones in 2020. Since then, a growing list of federal agencies, including the FBI, have issued warnings about the data collection risks posed by DJI products.
The company has denied that it shares data with the Chinese government and has offered to let independent auditors examine its systems. Those assurances haven’t satisfied Congress.
California’s move also comes amid heightened awareness of drone threats from state adversaries. Iran’s sophisticated use of drones — both for surveillance and as weapons — has been closely studied by U.S. defense planners. The proliferation of relatively cheap, capable unmanned systems by Iranian-backed militias in the Middle East has underscored how drones manufactured abroad can become strategic liabilities when supply chains are controlled by hostile or rival powers. While the wildfire application is obviously different from a military context, the underlying concern about technological dependency is the same.
Inspired Flight Technologies isn’t the only American company angling for a piece of the government drone market that DJI’s potential ban would open up. Skydio, based in San Mateo, California, has been aggressively pitching its autonomous drones to defense and public safety customers. Shield AI, also California-based, focuses on military applications. Teal Drones, acquired by Red Cat Holdings, has won contracts with the U.S. Army. The field is growing — but none of these companies yet matches DJI’s combination of affordability, reliability, and global distribution.
That’s the core tension. Security hawks want Chinese drones out of American skies immediately. Firefighters and emergency managers want tools that work and that they can afford. The Inspired Flight deal is California’s attempt to satisfy both demands simultaneously, but scaling domestic production to meet nationwide demand will take years, not months.
There’s also the question of software. DJI’s dominance extends beyond hardware into flight planning, fleet management, and data analytics platforms that thousands of agencies have built their workflows around. Switching to a new drone manufacturer means retraining pilots, recertifying equipment, and often rebuilding entire data pipelines. The transition costs, in other words, go well beyond the sticker price of the aircraft themselves.
Some states have moved faster than others. Florida banned state agencies from using Chinese-made drones in 2023. Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee have enacted similar restrictions. Texas introduced legislation this year that would prohibit drones manufactured by companies linked to foreign adversaries from being used in critical infrastructure inspections. The patchwork of state laws has created confusion for manufacturers and operators alike, and industry groups have called for a uniform federal standard.
Congress may deliver one. The Senate version of the Countering CCP Drones Act is expected to move through committee later this year. If it passes, it would create a de facto national ban on new DJI drone deployments in government operations and potentially in commercial use as well, depending on how broadly the FCC interprets its authority.
For California, the stakes extend beyond policy. The state’s 2025 wildfire season is already shaping up to be severe. Drought conditions persist across much of the southern part of the state. The Los Angeles fires in January were a brutal reminder that urban-wildland interface fires — the kind that destroy neighborhoods, not just forests — are becoming more frequent and more destructive. Drones capable of spotting ignitions early, mapping fire perimeters in real time, and guiding ground crews through smoke-choked terrain aren’t optional equipment anymore. They’re essential.
And that urgency is exactly what makes the DJI dilemma so difficult. Ripping out proven technology in the middle of a crisis is risky. But continuing to rely on a supply chain that Congress is actively working to sever is arguably riskier.
California’s bet on Inspired Flight is a down payment on the idea that American manufacturers can fill the gap. Whether they can do it fast enough — and cheaply enough — to keep pace with the fires that are already burning is the question that matters most. No amount of policy ambition can outrun a wildfire that’s moving at 80 miles per hour through dry brush.
The drones will need to be ready. So will the companies building them.
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