China's Drones Give US a Crushing Defeat on the Battlefield
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The United States (US) is once again confronting China through military technology. Beijing is said to have defeated the US in drone dominance.
Long before, drones discovered in Ukraine revealed components from China, including batteries, motors, and chips. It is possible that China is also involved in Iran’s fight against Israel and the US in the war that broke out some time ago.
To date, it is not yet known how much assistance China provides for the unmanned aircraft used by Iran. However, defence analysts and industry experts say the control is likely similar to that in the Russia-Ukraine war.
“China has already won World War III because everything is in its hands. No one can change that in the near term, or even the long term,” explained drone specialist Bulava, using the pseudonym Udav, quoted from the Wall Street Journal on Sunday (3/5/2026).
However, the US is certainly not giving up easily. Washington is preparing ways to break China’s dominance in the drone industry.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has prepared the Drone Dominance programme worth US$1.1 billion. The project’s goal is to increase domestic drone production and lower costs through agreements to purchase more from US suppliers.
Nevertheless, it is not easy to defeat China. The Wall Street Journal notes that China excels in production scale with cheap prices.
In contrast to the US. Quadcopters cost more than US$15,000, or three times the price of equivalent Chinese-made drones.
Additionally, the US needs to find solutions to break China’s dominance in batteries and motors. The Donald Trump administration is trying to do this.
The US is known to have invested billions of dollars in local companies to produce minerals essential for making motors and batteries. On the other hand, several experts warn that building complex infrastructure with mass production will take up to a decade or more.
Another issue is the lack of demand for US drones. Clients for local companies only come from the military, whereas DJI, the Chinese technology giant, works for content producers, real estate agents, factory inspectors, and even US police and fire departments.
The Pentagon is attempting to stimulate supply chain growth with the Drone Dominance programme, promising to purchase 340,000 FPV drones.
All efforts undertaken are said by Trent Emeneker, a former supply chain expert at the Pentagon’s Defence Innovation Unit, to be moving in the right direction. However, he acknowledges it is quite slow.
“This is difficult because you have to recreate an industry that already exists, with high quality and low costs,” he said.