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> supply chain for drones requires the stability and resource extraction on the scale of a state

It's all about China. They have the ability to cut off drone production for the rest of the world.




Not really. All parts are produced in other countries as well, although with slightly higher prices.


I would like to see evidence behind this claim on two fronts: 1. all parts are produced in other countries 2. slightly higher prices

There are countries (including Ukraine) that produce on-board flight controllers, but the controllers themselves often rely on components from China. I actually do think it is feasible to create a passable quadrotor using non-Chinese components only but I do not know of a rigorous study or a manufacturer that does this.


I would not provide you with links, sorry. I follow different drone manufactures and over the last years they all had periodic issues sourcing components from China including chips for flight controllers so they found alternatives (i.e. not manufactured in China) for all major components AFAIK .

I've heard that the most difficult to replace is the camera sensor. Drone cameras are produced now in Ukraine as well, however non-Chinese sensors as far as I know are very expensive.


https://militarnyi.com/uk/articles/niyakogo-kytayu-ukrayinsk...

You can source camera sensor from Japan and microcontrollers from France (made at ST Crolles). Your $1 camera becomes $10, $1 micros (s because basic ESC uses 4-5) become $10, $1 Chinese clone IMU becomes $10 TDK IMU, ESC mosfets go from $0.4 to $1.5 (you need 24 of those). Even magnets in the motor are easily doable https://www.kumarmagnet.com/ukraine/neodymium-magnet.html

All the parts are still manufactured in the West/Japan/Korea/Taiwan. Made in China 2025 just means Chinese clones/substitutes are 2-10 times cheaper. In 2015 people laughed and dismissed MIC 2025 as unrealistic, but here we are in 2025 and Chinese products do in fact come with up to 100% domestic electronic components! One stupid example from today, hackaday article https://hackaday.com/2025/06/08/simple-triggering-for-saleae... comment mentions Kingst LA2016. Sigrok wiki https://sigrok.org/wiki/Kingst_LA2016 has pictured of same product at v1.3 and v3.2. v3.2 uses COREBAI clone of Cypress FX2LP and Pango Micro FPGA (https://www.pangomicro.com/en/about/index/) instead of "Intel" Cyclone IV.

EEVBlog did a Deye SUN-5K-SG04LP1 5kW hybrid solar inverter teardown some time ago, almost every semi component made in China https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0_cTg36A2Q




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