Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) raised concerns in Dec. 18 letters over the use of drones made by DJI, a Chinese company, in homeland security and national security facilities by construction companies contracted by the U.S. government.

The lawmakers wrote to construction companies Hensel Phelps, Brasfield & Gorrie, and Bechtel, which hold such contracts. Hensel Phelps has constructed nuclear weapons facilities and ports. Brasfield & Gorrie has constructed U.S. military bases and ports. Bechtel has constructed nuclear weapons labs and missile bases.

The companies did not respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times.

DJI is the world’s largest drone maker and dominates the U.S. market.

Lawmakers say concerns about DJI as a national security risk go back to 2017. In 2019, Congress introduced legislation to prohibit the Pentagon from buying Chinese-made drones. In 2021, an executive order banned federal agencies from purchasing drones made by foreign adversaries.

DJI was added to the Pentagon’s list of Chinese military companies in 2022, a decision upheld by a federal court in September this year, which blocks it from receiving certain U.S. grants, contracts, and loans and from inclusion in certain programs.

Lawmakers have also sought to restrict DJI contracts in other U.S. agencies. Last year’s defense budget set a deadline of Dec. 23, 2025, to audit DJI for addition to the Federal Communications Commission’s covered list, which could, more broadly, ban new DJI products from the U.S. market.

DJI has denied links to the Chinese communist regime and called for a transparent audit process. U.S. officials and lawmakers have raised concerns that DJI may be subject to Chinese regime intelligence obligations regardless of the company’s own policies.

“The U.S. government considers the use of Chinese-made drones generally—and DJI drones specifically—a threat to national security and prohibits their use by federal agencies or contractors,” the senators wrote in the Dec. 18 letters.

The lawmakers point to an Office of Inspector General finding that drones from a Pentagon-blacklisted Chinese company were used by a contractor to photograph a construction site, raising concerns about the continued use of DJI drones in public projects after the prohibitions went into effect.

“Corporate social media posts also suggest ongoing relationships between federal contractors and DJI,” the lawmakers wrote, pointing to posts by the companies about DJI drones unrelated to specific projects.

DJI produces many specialized drones, including ones used in construction to map architecture, track construction progress, inspect buildings, and measure and model construction sites.

The lawmakers raised concerns that these drones can collect detailed maps and terrain and location information of sensitive areas, posing a national security risk.

“These drone-supported cameras can capture large amounts of information about the locations they are employed at, including strategically important locations and secure facilities,” the letters read.

“Importantly, detailed information about the design of secure facilities is often sensitive and can be classified if it shows undisclosed security features or potential vulnerabilities.”

The lawmakers referred to a 2024 Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI alert that warned of three main security risks linked to drones.

First, drones can enable intelligence gathering, including of critical U.S. infrastructure. Second, software and firmware patches may introduce functions that will allow intelligence gathering without users’ awareness. Third, if drones are connected to networks, they could access and collect additional information from the network, including “sensitive imagery, surveying data, facility layouts.”

Lawmakers are demanding that the construction companies detail how DJI drones were used in government contracts and whether data collected by these drones may have been stored on vulnerable networks.

They asked for details on the DJI drones these companies own and use, their policies on drone use, and all Pentagon, Intelligence Community, National Nuclear Security Administration, or Department of Homeland Security projects in which the companies used drones.

The lawmakers also asked for information regarding the security policies related to the drone data and any assessments the companies took internally to evaluate national security risks associated with using Chinese-made drones.