Chinese drone maker gets UK military contracts right before sanctions hit

The UK militaryʼs use of Chinese-made drones has raised some eye-brows after the manufacturer got hit with sanctions. Rachel Reeves and Jon Healey were seen checking-out these flying machines at a military training spot just weeks ago

The Ministry of Defence picked up some drones from Autel Robotics (a company that got into hot-water for helping Russia): these air-gadgets are now part of the training setup for Ukrainian soldiers. Its worth noting that local cops in places like Nottingham and Wiltshire got their hands on these too

• No recording allowed on military grounds
• Strict rules about connecting to MoD gear
• Limited use for specific training needs
• No plans to buy more units

A small number of Autel drones have been purchased to train Ukrainian recruits primarily to replicate the threat they will face from Russian drones

The whole thing gets more complex when you look at the timing - Autel got slapped with sanctions bout a week ago (including their assets getting frozen) The US already black-listed them this past summer saying they were trying to get their hands on some American drone tech for Chinaʼs military

The situation with these off-the-shelf drones is kinda tricky: while Autel says theyʼre not meant for war stuff theyʼve shown up on both sides of the Ukraine conflict. Police departments across UK have been using similar gear from DJI (another Chinese maker) which has its own set of issues in the US