The IDF Army Headquarters Procurement Directorate has ordered thousands of multicopter drones from two Chinese manufacturers, DJI and Autel Robotics, which dominate the civilian drone market, Globes and the Mako website report.
Since the beginning of the war, these drones have been actively used by the IDF in Gaza for reconnaissance of the area and collection of intelligence information, including inside buildings. However, until now we have been talking about “gifts” supplied to the army by volunteers and various organizations, and not about centralized procurement.
It should be noted that the United States has prohibited its security forces from using DJI equipment for reasons of information security and cybersecurity.
The IDF press office said that the procurement of various types of drones is carried out in accordance with the range of tasks facing the IDF, and that the specified purchased devices undergo the necessary checks and the required changes are made to them.
Cheap and affordable Chinese-made drones have been actively used in military conflicts in recent years. Thus, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently bought a batch of 4,000 drones of several modifications from China, including those from DJI.