In a recent disclosure the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) revealed that it has largely restricted the deployment of its Chinese-manufactured unmanned aerial vehicles. About 973 drones — roughly 80 per cent of the 1,230 drones in its fleet — have been relegated to only non-sensitive operations, after a security review concluded that their country of origin poses too high a risk for data integrity and secure operations.

The restrictions mean these Chinese-made drones will no longer be used for critical activities such as border surveillance, protection of VIPs, emergency response missions or investigations involving cooperation with foreign authorities. Instead, they will be limited to lower-stakes tasks such as locating missing persons, investigating car thefts and supporting general community policing.

The RCMP explained that the drones were acquired prior to 2023 — before tighter security protocols were introduced — and remain in service because they are cost-efficient for everyday tasks compared with helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft.

Replacing the fleet of Chinese drones would exceed 30 million Canadian dollars, or about $35,000 per unit — a steep price given that non-Chinese drones are reported to cost nearly twice as much.

Some experts argue that the move is a pragmatic, if belated, shift in policy: once foreign-made drones have been integrated into a national force, the costs of upgrading may force continued use for less sensitive tasks. Yet the reliance on technology from abroad has exposed a difficult trade-off between maintaining operational capacity and safeguarding national security.