I worked for a company that built quad copters in the US.

Building them here isn't that difficult at all. They're relatively simple, as far as electronic goods go.

Getting insurance is nearly impossible though, as US manufacturers have a significant disadvantage over foreign manufacturers and importers when it comes to liability.

In other countries, if someone does something stupid with your product and hurts themselves or someone else, it's their fault. In the US, if someone does something stupid with your product and hurts themselves or someone else, it's their fault if it was imported, but if the manufacturer has business operations in the US, than it's the manufacturers fault. You might get the importer to stop carrying that exact SKU, but you're not getting any money from them, and they'll just import it under a different SKU.

Funny how this article forgets the cost of software and design, and thinks its all about hardware.

I’m sure we could, but Skydio chose to build only for the government as soon as they took the axe to DJI, ensuring that nobody could get a US built drone.

Thanks, Adam Bry.

The East Germans did excellent industrial espionage and they could copy the West.

The hard part is making things at scale. And let's face it nobody wants expensive American drones if they can buy cheap Chinese ones.

The US can't build anything anymore.