Ukrainian and IDF forces strongly prefer Chinese drones to US-built drones, in their respective combat operations. This according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal since February of last year.
US-built drone weapons are less reliable, more easily jammed by Electronic Warfare efforts, and do not fly as far or with payloads as advertised. China drones are also far less costly.
The Chinese-built drones are commercial grade, and are purchased off-the-shelf by volunteers who then send them to either Ukraine or Israel, where they are repurposed for combat use. The main producer of these Chinese-built drones, DJI of Shenzhen, strongly opposes the use of their equipment in military applications.
The strong preference of allied countries for Chinese civilian drones over American military drones, and the stark differences in battlefield performance, do lead to very disturbing questions; namely, how much better still are Chinese military-grade drones? How were the Russians able to overwhelm the GPS signals in the US-made drones? If the US companies that build our drones admit publicly the enormous challenges they face, what concerns do they share only privately?
Resources and links:
WSJ, How American drones failed to turn the tide in Ukraine
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WSJ, Drones are giving Ukraine a wartime edge
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WSJ, Chinese, American--it doesn't matter. Israel wants inexpensive drones
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