WASHINGTON — The Interior Department is banning nonemergency flights of its fleet of 810 drones as it reviews national security concerns about the Chinese-made devices.
The restrictions were outlined in an order signed Wednesday by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that doesn’t name China. But it is aimed at drones made there or that use Chinese components, a senior Interior official told reporters Wednesday.
The Interior Department has grown heavily reliant on drones to monitor hundreds of millions of acres of public lands, employing the devices to help respond to natural disasters as well as survey dams and other critical infrastructure.
The ban comes as the Trump administration moves to curtail the government’s use of Chinese drones. The U.S. military is already paring its purchases and the Homeland Security Department warned last year that the devices can transmit sensitive data and video to third parties. The Trump administration also has sought to block other Chinese technology and unsuccessfully lobbied the European Union to ban Huawei Technologies Co. and other Chinese 5G suppliers.