WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Defense has given five small drone manufacturers permission to sell to the U.S. military and federal agencies, in the wake of last year’s ban on these agencies buying Chinese-made drones. Pentagon officials said four U.S. companies—Skydio Inc., Vantage Robotics, Altavian Inc. and Teal Drones—were approved after 18 months of testing, along with France’s Parrot SA . The U.S. military has used small aerial drones for decades and has tried to expand its fleet. Defense Department officials requested for its 2019 budget nearly $280 million for small-drone purchases—enough to buy more than 3,000 of them—up from $89 million the year before, according to the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York. The Pentagon in 2018 largely banned purchases of commercial, off-the-shelf drones until it could determine how to mitigate security risks, including when drones are used for surveillance of military installations and critical infrastructure.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 20, 2020 11:03 UTC