DJI paid for a safety audit of its personal drones, and here is what it discovered

DJI has launched the findings of probably the most in depth unbiased safety evaluation ever performed on its drone techniques, and the headline end result: It appears there are zero essential, excessive, or medium-risk safety findings throughout 5 months of adversarial testing by a U.S. cybersecurity agency.

The findings are related to anybody following the FCC’s December 2025 international drone ban — and to anybody who has been flying DJI {hardware} and questioning whether or not the safety issues underpinning the ban have any technical foundation.

The evaluation was performed by a safety agency known as OnDefend, which examined the next drones: the DJI Air 3S with RC 2 controller and the DJI Matrice 4E with RC Plus 2 Enterprise controller. Testing ran from October 2025 by means of March 2026. Client models had been bought instantly from stores with out pre-notification to DJI; enterprise models got here from current vendor inventory. Customary U.S. market distribution merchandise, not specifically ready samples. OnDefend additionally used the examine to explicitly advocate ongoing steady testing as firmware updates are launched.

“That is probably the most complete unbiased safety evaluation ever undertaken on our merchandise,” stated Adam Welsh, DJI’s Head of International Coverage.

Now to be clear, DJI itself commissioned and paid for this evaluation, so it ought to met with some extent of skepticism. OnDefend performed their examine independently — and the retail buy methodology theoretically provides a safeguard towards DJI making ready particular clear models for testing.

Nonetheless, the elemental dynamic of an organization funding its personal safety audit is value holding onto. In any case, firms don’t fee audits they count on to fail.

Why the audit was obligatory

The anti-DJI case has additionally by no means been notably grounded in documented technical proof, and that issues too.

The FCC added DJI to the Coated Listing in December 2025 with out figuring out a single particular safety vulnerability. The designation was purely based mostly on categorical issues about Chinese language-manufactured expertise, slightly than any documented exploit, backdoor, or knowledge exfiltration incident. DJI has been asking for an evidence-based technical evaluate for the reason that ban was introduced, but the FCC hasn’t produced one.

So far as real-world impacts of the ban go, it’s been bleak for drone pilots (and taxpayers or clients who not directly profit from drones). Greater than 80% of the 1,800-plus state and native regulation enforcement companies that use drones stated they depend on DJI drones particularly for search and rescue, accident reconstruction, and tactical overwatch. A Pilot Institute survey discovered 43% of drone enterprise customers consider they might face extraordinarily detrimental or business-ending penalties from DJI restrictions.

So far as the place we’re at the moment, DJI’s lawsuit towards the FCC is ongoing. The FCC reconsideration course of — which acquired over 3,000 public feedback — continues to be pending. The Drone Advocacy Alliance celebrated the latest software program replace waiver extension to 2029 as a partial win whereas acknowledging the core ban stays in place.

This safety evaluation commissioned by DJI lands at a second when the FCC is actively reconsidering its place. And with this, a clear audit from credible testers — even a company-funded one — makes it more durable for the FCC to keep up that its Coated Listing designation is grounded in documented technical threat.

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