The Air Force Wants to Train With DJI Drones at Nuclear Bases — Here's Why That Matters

The U.S. Air Force is buying Chinese-made drones to train the security teams that protect some of the nation's most sensitive nuclear weapons. It's a decision that sounds counterintuitive at first glance — Pentagon policy has been steadily moving away from DJI hardware over security concerns — but the logic behind it is grounded in operational reality.

According to a federal contract solicitation first reported by Stars and Stripes, nuclear security airmen at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, are seeking six refurbished DJI quadcopters for the 90th Missile Security Operations Squadron. The base is home to the 90th Missile Wing, which maintains up to 150 launch facilities for Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles under Air Force Global Strike Command. Officials at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana — also a nuclear weapons site — are pursuing similar acquisitions for counter-drone training.

The New AK-47 of Modern Combat

The solicitation explicitly names DJI as the desired brand. That specificity is unusual — Defense Department procurement typically favors vetted "Blue" drone manufacturers — but the Air Force is operating under a directive Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued last year that permits the purchase under certain circumstances.

The rationale is straightforward: if your adversaries are most likely to use DJI drones in a conflict, your training should reflect that.

"If you want to train in modern tactical drone combat, you got to train against the technology that's used in that tactical combat, and that's DJI," said Samuel Bendett, an analyst with the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA). "No other drone made elsewhere is going to approximate it. DJI is like the new AK-47 for combat right now: simple, easy to use, great out of the box."

DJI currently controls over 80% of the global commercial drone market, and its systems have capabilities that haven't been replicated in American-made alternatives on the Pentagon's Blue list. Those features — specific radio frequency signatures, proprietary protocols, flight characteristics — are exactly what counter-drone systems need to detect and defeat.

Why Realistic Training Matters

The justification document included with the solicitation doesn't hedge. Purchasing DJI systems is described as "an absolute operational necessity" for ensuring airmen supporting the nuclear mission train against the "most statistically probable real-world threat."

"Relying solely on computerized data or alternative 'Blue' drones leaves a critical blind spot," the document states. "Operators and systems will remain untested against the actual [radio frequency] signatures and proprietary protocols of the world's most prevalent drone threat. This failure to conduct realistic, real-world [counter-small unmanned aircraft systems] training directly jeopardizes installation defense and nuclear asset security."

A Global Strike Command spokesperson confirmed that any DJI systems acquired for training would be kept "completely isolated" from secure Defense Department networks — addressing concerns about data security while preserving the training value of the actual hardware.

Industry and Policy Implications

The story illustrates a growing tension in defense procurement: the desire to build resilient domestic supply chains versus the operational need to train against the equipment adversaries actually field. DJI's dominance in commercial drones is a direct result of its manufacturing scale and price-to-performance ratio — advantages that have made it the default choice for non-state actors and state adversaries alike.

For the tactical gear and defense industry, the story points to continued growth in counter-drone and drone-specific training equipment markets. As the Air Force's own document notes, the threat is no longer theoretical: small commercial drones have been used for ISR, direct attack, and swarm tactics in multiple active conflict zones.

What happens with this solicitation will be watched closely. If the Air Force successfully acquires and fields DJI hardware for counter-drone training, it sets a precedent that other branches — or other government agencies securing critical infrastructure — may follow.

Source: Task & Purpose

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Task & Purpose, Stars and Stripes