NZDF has no plans to ground drones

THE New Zealand Army says it has no plans to ground Chinesemade drones banned by its US military allies over cybersecurity concerns fears.

The Defence Force bought a fleet of cheap commercial offtheshelf hobbyist drones in March last year.

The Army envisions that over the next few decades, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) will become ‘‘as ubiquitous as section machineguns’’.

But the same drones, built by Chinese manufacturers Dajiang Innovation (DJI), were scrapped by the US Army last August due to ‘‘increased awareness of cyber vulnerabilities associated with DJI products’’.

The world’s biggest dronemaker said in a statement that it was ‘‘surprised and disappointed’’ at the Pentagon’s sudden decision.

A fortnight later, Shenzhenbased DJI announced a privacy mode to prevent flight data being shared to the internet.

In 2016, the Edward Snowden files revealed that American and British Intelligence hacked Israeli drone feeds and captured images from videos recorded by drone cameras.

Militant group Hezbollah claims it intercepted transmissions by Israeli drones, which allowed it to ambush Israel Defence Forces commandos raiding a Lebanese coastal village in 1997.

The NZDF says there are no plans to scrap its DJI fleet.

‘‘The NZDF has worked with our partners to assess the cyber security of DJI RPAS and has implemented the necessary policies and procedures to ensure security is addressed,’’ a spokesman said.