The US government's ban on new drone imports from China and Ukraine, aimed at achieving "American drone dominance," is an industrial policy likely to fail. Full self-sufficiency is impossible, as protectionism decreases general welfare and inhibits innovation, similar to the Jones Act's impact on American shipbuilding. Ukraine, however, is rapidly producing military innovations with revolutionary effects in its war against Russian invaders, leveraging accessible Chinese components to build a massive domestic industry.
NATO allies, like Germany's Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger, underestimate this decentralized, agile iteration. The current US ban forces Ukrainian innovators through a regulatory gauntlet, hindering collaboration. Instead of a blanket ban on Chinese parts, US drone policy should focus on long-term strategies. The Pentagon's $54 billion domestic drone procurement plan should spread funding across multiple suppliers through frequent competitions, explicitly favor allied nations to promote reciprocal learning and license battle-proven Ukrainian technologies, and co-invest with Western nations in future-shaping fields like AI and advanced autonomy. True drone dominance requires utilizing Ukrainian connections for "re-innovation," refining battlefield tech, and exporting superior systems, rather than isolation.
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