Skydio— the largest American manufacturer of drones and supplier for the Armed Forces, is facing a crisis in the supply chain after being placed on China’s sanctions list. The Financial Times (FT) writes about this with reference to sources. Skydio CEO Adam Bray confirmed the existence of problems in his public address to customers.
On October 10, the Chinese Foreign Ministry imposed sanctions against ten American top managers and three companies – Skydio, Edge Autonomy Operations LLC and Huntington Ingalls Industries. In Beijing, this step was called “countermeasures” in response to the agreement between the United States and Taiwan on the supply of attack drones.
According to FT sources, China is blocking the supply of batteries for Skydio-manufactured drones, and now the American company is forced to hastily look for other suppliers. In particular, the Chinese authorities allegedly demanded that a subsidiary of Japanese TDK, Dongguan Poweramp, which produces batteries for drones, break off relations with Skydio, according to one of the newspaper’s interlocutors.
Skydio supplies products to the U.S. Army and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The company has sent more than a thousand reconnaissance drones to Kiev, including the latest X10 model. According to the FT, it is “the first among American drones to successfully pass tests for resistance to electronic warfare.”
Adam Bry, the head of Skydio, said that due to the imposition of sanctions, the company is reducing the supply of batteries for drones for the next few months and does not expect new suppliers to appear until the spring of 2025.
“In order to continue delivering the X10 and supporting our customers, we will have to take the drastic step of limiting the number of batteries to one per drone,” Bray said.
He called China’s sanctions “an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone manufacturing company and increase the world’s dependence on Chinese suppliers.”
According to the FT, Skydio has asked the US presidential administration for help. The CEO of the company met with Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and held talks with senior officials at the White House.
In April, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote that American drones, including those produced by Skydio, did not justify themselves in combat conditions in Ukraine, which is why Kiev began using Chinese drones and their components.
WSJ sources among Ukrainian officials said that American drones are fragile and unable to overcome Russian electronic warfare. Some drones could not take off, complete the task, fly the stated distances and return home, carry a significant payload. The head of Skydio, in a conversation with the publication, admitted that the drones produced by his company are “not a very successful platform on the front line.”
https://rtvi.com/news/kitajskie-sankczii-udarili-po-postavshhiku-bespilotnikov-dlya-vsu/
