The Civil Aviation and Safety Authority is installing drone detection technology at Sydney Harbour and Australian airports, hiring a company the United States has previously warned could contribute to cyber attacks.

CASA has opted for a Chinese-developed technology called DJI Aerospace despite official US concerns the company could be sending drone-harvested data back to Beijing.

The counter drone measures come in the wake of the chaos caused at London's Gatwick airport before Christmas when Britain's second-busiest airport was closed for 36 hours following multiple sightings of illegal drones, disrupting travel plans for at least 115,000 people. The episode exposed a major weakness in a country's ability to respond to a hostile drone attack.

In 2017, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said it had "moderate confidence" that the DJI was "providing US critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government."