Does American C100 quadcopter have Chinese rare earth elements in it?
The Performance Drone Works (PDW) C100 quadcopter, while a U.S. product used by the American military, is very likely to contain Chinese rare earth elements due to pervasive industry reliance on Chinese supply chains.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are critical components for the high-performance permanent magnets used in drone motors, and China currently dominates the global market and processing of these materials.
Industry Reliance: The vast majority of American drone manufacturers rely heavily on Chinese components, including motors and batteries, as China controls about 90% of the global supply chain for drone parts.
Essential Components: A single drone motor can contain between 12 and 60 magnets made from rare-earth metals like neodymium-iron-boron, which are essential for lightweight, efficient, and powerful flight.
PDW Context: The C100 is on the U.S. Army's list of approved drones ("Blue UAS"), which aims to avoid Chinese components where possible; however, even "Blue UAS" approved drones have been found to use Chinese-sourced motors due to a lack of viable alternatives in the U.S. supply chain.
Supply Chain Issues: The U.S. Department of Defense has recognized the significant national security risk posed by this dependence and is working to establish a domestic "mine-to-magnet" supply chain, but this process is ongoing and the U.S. is still heavily reliant on Chinese rare earths.
Therefore, it is probable that the C100 contains Chinese rare earth elements, particularly within its motors.
“SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii -- A winged drone circled 2,000 feet above the jungle. "Three pax," said U.S. Army Specialist Josiah Whitt, counting enemy troops on a laptop screen.
It has been an unusual year for soldiers like him.
"We get a drone, we train on it, then we get a new drone, train on it, test it out," said the 20-year-old, who learned to fly the Stalker less than a month earlier.
Crouched under a green poncho, Sgt. Nicholas Cole Hagler lifted a C100 quadcopter -- one of five drone systems the 22-year-old has been taught in quick succession. In 23-year-old Sgt. Brock Beckman's vehicle: 3D-printed drones that dive and explode with a nudge of the thumb.
These young American soldiers are preparing for the next war in the Pacific.
They brought out some of their newest gear for large-scale Army exercises in November that unfolded over two weeks across several Hawaiian islands. Such systems dominate the battlefield in Ukraine and Russia. The U.S. -- long reliant on expensive fighting kit and extended processes -- is trying to catch up, shifting to a new era marked by nimble, relatively cheap and expendable equipment.
The timing is tricky. The world's pre-eminent military power must rethink its tried-and-tested tools and tactics even as it girds for one of its most vexing challenges since World War II: potential great-power conflict with China.
For the U.S. Army in particular, which spent two decades fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, future conflicts may be different on fundamental counts -- where, how and against whom.
China has one of the world's largest missile arsenals and unrivaled industrial strength to buoy forces in a protracted war. Fighting it in the Pacific would involve a vast, watery battlespace speckled with jungle-swathed island chains -- all within reach of those missiles. That means the U.S. can't expect to rule the skies and would struggle to resupply scattered troops.
The Army is thinking boats, buggies and bombardment. Docked at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam during the exercises was a small new watercraft designed to move equipment straight to a beach. Soldiers zip around in light, maneuverable vehicles out of a Mad Max movie that one military official called the biggest game-changer since night vision. To prepare for a cross-island fight, clunkier cannon artillery has made way for shoot-and-scoot Himars missile platforms, 16 of which arrived in Hawaii this year.
First contact
Atop the maritime littorals is the 21st-century problem of "air littorals" -- airspace between the Earth and high skies where drones lurk, hunt and kill. Soldiers navigating Hawaiian terrain took great pains to blend into it, shrinking command posts to a handful of trucks, draping vehicles with camouflage nets and vegetation, and painting their faces with thick stripes of green.
"The truth of the modern battlefield is that everyone can be seen," said Maj. Gen. James Bartholomees, commander of the Army's 25th Infantry Division that focuses on the Indo-Pacific.
Soldiers must prepare to fight with drones, against drones and via electronic warfare. Looking up and dealing with "first contact" from the sky or the electromagnetic spectrum is the new reality, said Bartholomees.
Troops are experimenting with a smorgasbord of buzzing, flying machines -- launching more than 600 flights over two weeks during the exercises -- and layering them through the depth of the battlefield.
They are learning that drones tested successfully elsewhere in the world can wobble in tropical heat. Cloud cover can mean defaulting to human senses over drone sensors.
They are also thinking of ways to stymie enemy drones without accidentally thwarting their own. Several dozen M4 assault rifles now have "smart shooter" add-ons that can lock onto a flying drone and fire a round when the target is aligned.
A higher-tech new arrival: a wearable drone blocker with two units roughly the size of iPhones. One, called Wingman, detects incoming drones and the other, Pitbull, disrupts or jams the drone with what amounts to an electromagnetic arrow.
Jamming, however, means showing oneself on the electromagnetic spectrum.
"It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game that we're watching and learning from in Ukraine," said Bartholomees. "There are vignettes that are easily seen on YouTube of how you see a drone that's defeated in one way, that then there's a counter that's already planned."
The two mobile brigades that make up Bartholomees's division -- each about 3,500 personnel strong -- have both been through what the Army calls "transformation in contact," the whirlwind shift toward new technology.
The difference is night and day, said Sgt. First Class Kamakaniokalani Mann Tomita, 31. In about a year, his infantry platoon went from having one kind of drone, a small quadcopter, to seven types to experiment with. "The amount of systems and different assets that we've had is just insane," he said.
On a recent afternoon, he learned the art of kamikaze-style attacks using a flock of drones. The chassis of the quadcopters were 3D printed in-house while the technology to move and attack as a swarm came from Auterion, a company that makes autonomous drone operating systems. The company's crew was in Hawaii's jungles to troubleshoot.
Seven drones soared. With clicks on a screen, two peeled off to swoop down for the kill. Tracking the hit from a shrouded nook between towering trees, Tomita reflected on the new world of deadly drone wars. "It's very, very terrifying to be frank," he said.
Tomita's brigade was playing the adversary in an exercise scenario that could someday become reality: A U.S. ally's island territory is under attack, enemy forces have landed, and America joins the fight several weeks in. China and Taiwan weren't mentioned, but the parallels are evident.
If Beijing invaded and the U.S. decided to come to the island democracy's aid, American soldiers might find themselves fighting in the "first island chain" where Taiwan is located, between Japan and the Philippines.
To better prepare them for a war like that, a new combat training center called the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center was created in 2022 in Hawaii. During last month's exercises, it brought together more than 8,000 personnel largely from the U.S. but also from places including Taiwan, France and Malaysia. Soldiers executed air assaults, simulated missile shots across islands, navigated gulches and slept fitfully under trees.
It was the first year of exercises where both sides -- American soldiers playing themselves and the enemy -- were given the latest systems the Army is trying out. "We have new tech against new tech," said Col. Matthew P. Leclair, who leads the training center. Evaluators were looking to see who used it better, how and why.
"The best way to do it then becomes the doctrine," he said.
Next year, one of the two brigades will go out to the Philippines to stress-test its takeaways -- part of a rotation that allows them to take turns training in forward locations.
"We can quickly turn lessons learned," said Command Sgt. Maj. Shaun Curry of the 25th Infantry Division. "Did it work here in Hawaii and then does it work in the first island chain in 100 degrees heat, in 100% humidity."
The Army wants to change not just what it buys but how it buys, since fast-paced technological shifts can render new equipment obsolete within months. It is trying to break out of a laborious acquisition process and also give commanders some flexibility to curate their own shopping carts. Like Amazon, said Curry.
To be ready for a near-term conflict, however, the U.S. also needs to scale up. Ukraine and Russia are making millions of drones a year out of Chinese parts, and China can outproduce them both.
The U.S. Army hopes to spur domestic drone production during the next few years.
"The one fear I have is that we develop an army of amazing prototypes but we don't have a deep-enough magazine depth," said Benjamin Jensen, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.” [1]
It could be doubtful that the Chinese will sell Chinese parts for millions of American military drones a year. For a minimum of five years the Americans can forget about participation in drone wars. This time is needed to scale rare earth production from zero if they will be able to. Western Europe? That just theater and stealing the money by ton. Forget it.
1. U.S. News: Army Changes Its Look in Pacific --- U.S. rethinks its tools and tactics as it prepares for conflict with China. Mandhana, Niharika. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 13 Dec 2025: A6.
