“Droni italiani? Meglio se cinesi”. The paradox of public tenders

Germany is banning Chinese drones for its armed forces, yet we continue to buy them. And to help our domestic manufacturers win tenders, they are advised to buy drones from Beijing and resell them to Italy. “The Italian Army’s procurement procedures expressly require models from the Chinese giant DJI, with virtually no scope for proposing comparable technologies,” Giulia Pastorella, an MP for Azione, tells Il Foglio. “It is a matter of competition, but also of national security. We have tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister of Defence seeking clarification.” The Bundeswehr will no longer use drones made in China and will replace them with domestic or European systems: the risks to military security are significant, including potential espionage activities via the drones’ technological components, involving the transmission of data on military exercises or information on weapon systems.

The German crackdown follows similar measures taken by several other countries. As we report here, in Lithuania a 2022 law prohibited defence and critical infrastructure organisations from purchasing Chinese technology, including drones, whilst in the Netherlands, according to a 2021 investigation by the daily newspaper Trouw, the Ministry of Defence reportedly excluded DJI drones from operational use. The US military has done the same, having stopped using DJI drones as early as 2017, citing ‘cyber vulnerabilities’, as has the Australian Defence Force, which in 2023 suspended all DJI products and subsequently decided to permanently dispose of its more than 800 Chinese-made drones. 

In Italy, however, the approach is different. “Our Ministry of Defence opts for Chinese drones, and specifies them in public tenders with precise wording and sometimes even by brand name,” notes Pastorella. Scrolling through the ‘tenders’ section published on the army’s website, one finds direct references to the procurement of models such as the DJI Mini 4 Pro Fly More Combo or the DJI Mavic 3 Pro drone. Drones of this brand were purchased in 2025 by the Cesano Infantry School and, years earlier, also by the local police forces in Genoa and Pisa. The parliamentary question states that “in a recent tender procedure for the supply of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles, ed.), the technical documentation expressly identifies models such as the DJI Mavic 3 Pro Fly More Combo and the DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Combo”. The same tender documentation, however, refers to the principle of equivalence set out in the Public Contracts Code, allowing, in theory, for the possibility of offering different products provided they are technically equivalent. “It’s like saying: ‘We need an Apple iPhone, or an equivalent’,” observes Pastorella.

The reliance on small Chinese drones is undeniable, notes Marco Gilli, a professor of military strategy and technology in Berlin. “This reduces the government’s room for manoeuvre when it comes to immediate purchases. But what are we doing to solve the problem, in terms of a realistic reduction plan?”, he asks. The risk, if we continue to rely on DJI, “is that the armed forces will become accustomed to a specific technology, and changing it will then become an even bigger problem”.

The sector is growing in Italy. According to data provided by the Drone and Advanced Air Mobility Observatory at the Politecnico di Milano, by 2025 the professional drone market in Italy is set to reach approximately 168 million euros (+5 per cent on 2024), with expectations of further growth over the next three years, according to industry operators. The number of active supply-side companies in Italy in 2025 stands at 675, including manufacturers and operators, marking a slight recovery compared with the previous two years. “Price is key. It is a market in which Beijing competes with superior resources and speed,” says Roberto Bellora, CEO of MavTech, a spin-off from the Polytechnic University of Turin that manufactures UAVs. “Tenders explicitly require Chinese brands. Those issuing the tenders advise us Italian manufacturers to buy drones from China and to participate in the tender as resellers.”

In 2025, the Competition Authority launched an investigation into DJI to ascertain whether, together with its importer in Italy, it had imposed resale prices and warned retailers who deviated from them. “But there is hope,” explains Bellora. “On 22 October, Minister Crosetto organised a session to showcase 400 Italian companies, potential suppliers to the Ministry of Defence, including drone manufacturers. It is a sign of change.”