The Pentagon will stop buying advanced batteries that contain Chinese materials from 1 January 2028, starting with new weapons programmes. Three drone suppliers moved this spring to be on the right side of that date.
The ban is section 842 of the 2026 defence authorization act, signed on 18 December 2025. It bars the Defense Department from buying battery cells whose components or technology come from a “foreign entity of concern”, a category that covers Chinese suppliers. It reaches batteries built into weapons and support systems as well as those bought on their own.
The dates are phased. Programmes that have not passed their main development milestone are covered from 1 January 2028. Standard batteries follow on 1 January 2029, and existing programmes on 30 January 2031. A battery escapes the ban if more than 95 percent of its component cost comes from other sources and its final assembly does too.
Cells, cathodes and stock
SES AI, a battery developer, said in its first-quarter letter to shareholders that it had converted its line in Chungju, South Korea, from electric car cells to cells in drone formats. It says the plant “has been NDAA-compliant since its inception”, which is the company’s own reading of the rule.
6K Energy signed a seven-year agreement on 28 April to supply cathode material to CRG Defense. The material is single-crystal NMC811, a high-energy nickel chemistry, from 6K’s plant in North Andover, Massachusetts. A second 6K plant, in Jackson, Tennessee, is expected in early 2028, the year the ban begins. 6K’s announcement cites section 842 by number.
Unusual Machines, which makes drone components and sells FPV drones under the Rotor Riot brand, placed about $75 million of purchase orders for materials and stock, it said on 5 May. “The constraint in this market is not demand,” said Allan Evans, its chief executive. “It is supply chain, production timing, and scalability.”
The money behind it
When this article first ran, these moves were tied to the Pentagon’s $54.6 billion request for its Defense Autonomous Warfare Group. Congress has so far written $1 billion of that into bills; the rest depends on a reconciliation package that has not passed.
The battery rule does not depend on that money. It is already law, and its first deadline is 14 months away.
