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FCC Updates Covered List to Include Foreign UAS and UAS Critical Components [pdf]
- Espressosaurus 10mo ago"What does this mean? • New devices on the Covered List, such as foreign-made drones, are prohibited from receiving FCC authorization and are therefore prohibited from being imported for use or sale in the U.S. This update to the Covered List does not prohibit the import, sale, or use of any existing device models the FCC previously authorized. • This action does not affect any previously-purchased drone. Consumers can continue to use any drone they have already lawfully purchased or acquired." Commentary: DJI has effectively been banned from operation in the US (unable to import anything with a transmitter, including most of their gimbals, mics, and other photography related equipment) They represent 70 to 80% of the US drone market. Probably closer to 100% for those that fly noncommercially. Autel, the other large manufacturer, is also banned.
- guerrilla 10mo agoSo, America just shot itself in the foot again. It's starting to look like a pattern.
- j16sdiz 10mo agoWell.. DJI have on-the-fly no fly zone update, and newer model can communicate via satellite. That's worse if you believe there are possibility of war...
- vasco 10mo agoAttack vector: drone needs to get out of a case, backpack or closet, out of the window and fly somewhere to do something. Meanwhile IoT devices, internet connected kitchen appliances just need to be able to be remotely activated to create a power surge and overwhelm the electric grid. Those can be sold no problem.
- mjevans 10mo agoOr even just 'halt and catch fire'. Heck even a targeted but small percent increase in sporadic behavior for targets of high value might be a worthy harassment tactic.
- guerrilla 10mo agoYeah, all your HVAC systems and even nuclear power plants are online. Don't give me this BS about kiddy drones.
- isodev 10mo agoIt’s like a poorly executed form of protectionism. I guess they’re doing the best they can, can’t expect people unfit for office to create good policy, right.
- pbhjpbhj 10mo agoPresumably it moves some stock prices or helps a company who bought a ticket/altcoin from Trump. I expect it achieves the intended effect.
- drstewart 10mo agoOh no, what will we do without cheap Chinese drones spying on us
- cyberax 10mo agoWow. The text of the determination is just unhinged completely: https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/National-Security-Determination-for-UAS.pdf https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/National-Security-De... > Federal planning for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympics already assumes that UAS will be a central threat vector. CISA’s soft‑target and UAS guidance notes that crowded venues, transportation nodes, and public‑gathering areas are particularly vulnerable to hostile drone activity.9 Recent congressional hearings on mass‑gathering security have emphasized that UAS are now a routine part of incident planning, alongside more traditional threats.10 The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of War are already investing heavily in detection, tracking, and mitigation capabilities with these specific events in mind.11 UAS are also playing a critical enabling role on the battlefield in many modern conflicts. In Ukraine and Israel-Gaza, low-cost commercial UAS inflict extensive damage and have caused significant loss of life.12 Drug Cartels are also reportedly using foreign-produced UAS to smuggle drugs into the United States and carry out attacks. I'm sure, the ban on DJI devices will stop fentanyl and terrorists.
- jfengel 10mo agoSo now in addition to snuggling fentanyl they'll also be smuggling the drones. Twofer.
- b00ty4breakfast 10mo agoI want to believe this is some ploy to open the market for some US manufacturer that slipped a few thousand dollars in an envelope but I have a sneaking suspicion that nobody is coming to fill the void left by this naive protectionism. (Or is it deliberate sabotage? I don't even know anymore)
- Espressosaurus 10mo agoIf it was phased in and didn't specifically include allied country imports, I could believe that. This door-slamming-shut-suddenly method says there is no plan, and given we don't domestically make most of the critical components ourselves, at best it's going to take awhile to build the factories and expertise to make up for the loss of the biggest suppliers in the market. We'll get to pay much higher prices for much worse products while we do so. Just looking at what's available for enterprise use (since there is no consumer-selling US drone company at this point) it looks like US companies are around a decade behind.
- neuronexmachina 10mo agoIt's crazy that it also bans new models from Europe's Wingtra, Quantum Systems, and AgEagle, which are basically the only consumer fixed-wing drones available. Heck, those companies were even previously approved for the DOD's "Blue UAS" list: https://bluelist.appsplatformportals.us/Cleared-List/ https://bluelist.appsplatformportals.us/Cleared-List/
- neuronexmachina 10mo agoIf I understand correctly, this doesn't ban the import/sale of drone models which the FCC previously approved. That said, in October 2025 the FCC granted itself the authority to retroactively revoke previously-approved models, so this is something they could still potentially do.
- Espressosaurus 10mo agoIt bans the import, but not sale of models the FCC has previously approved.
- CGamesPlay 10mo agoYour originally quoted text explicitly disagrees with you: "This update to the Covered List does not prohibit the import, sale, or use of any existing device models the FCC previously authorized."
- Espressosaurus 10mo agoMea culpa. I've been reading some reporting earlier in the day. Trying to find verification for the claims I see that it was wrong. Which is better than it could be, all things considered.
- bambax 10mo agoIf drones are a threat to national security, then all existing drones should be grounded, regardless of the manufacturer. Or, if Chinese drones are the threat, then all existing Chinese-made drones should be grounded? I don't understand how banning future drones helps national security in any way.
- kortilla 10mo agoWell this would be step one to try to motivate some US company to start manufacturing. Then once it ramps up they can step in with banning existing stuff without causing too much disruption.
- zarzavat 10mo agoWouldn't you want the opposite? Once domestic production ramps up you gradually lift import restrictions to create more competition. I guess that's if the intention is to improve the domestic market in the national interest, rather than to just make people rich.
- flessner 10mo agoThat is exactly what you never want to do under protectionist policies. Domestic producers are shielded from Chinese competitors. This means they are under less pressure to reduce prices and innovate. I wouldn't read too much into the national security justification. It's a political argument to an economic policy.
- jepj57 10mo agoThe national security justification is that we need expertise building/designing drones. We won't get that if we allow China to out-compete domestic manufacturers.
- zarzavat 10mo ago> I wouldn't read too much into the national security justification. It's a political argument to an economic policy. Have you seen what's been happening in Ukraine? OTC drones are critical military equipment now. Not having a domestic drone industry is like not having a domestic rifle industry, you cannot have an infantry without it.
- givemeethekeys 10mo agoDoes that mean that DJI can continue to sell models that they've already been selling in the US?
- jaybirdio 10mo agoAs long as there are no favored companies, I'm sure fair competition will ensure that the US regains its edge (and the Olympics will remain safe) https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/drone-company-stock-soars-appointing-donald-trump-jr-advisory-board-rcna181987 https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/drone-company...
- oefrha 10mo agoWhat and how much do I need to pay to add Don Jr. to my company’s board? $10MM converted to TRUMP? $100MM?
- tzs 10mo ago> In their determination, national security agencies referenced, among other things, concerns that that foreign-made UAS could be used for attacks and disruptions, unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data exfiltration, and other UAS threats to the homeland. So people planning attacks and disruptions and unauthorized surveillance will have to buy drones made in the USA?
- altairprime 10mo agoNo: the threat model as stated is referring to, in restated terms, “China could silently occupy DJI headquarters and control US-deployed DJI drones into quasi-military strikes using firmware updates, remote controls, or other such mechanisms.” Same theory as Huawei 5G routers could be remotely wiretapped in various ways, etc. (It’s important to distinguish it from the “buy drone-as-weapon at US retail, use drone inside US” threat model, but beyond telling them apart, I have no position prepared on the relevance of either model.)
- lazide 10mo agoWith the way DJI drone updates are deployed, that isn’t actually that far fetched, technically. Assuming the targeted event was known in advance in time/space. It would likely be an obvious act of war, but technically it wouldn’t be that hard to pull off.
- testing22321 10mo agoAs another commenter pointed out, the vast majority of drones are in storage, indoors, with no battery connected.
- lazide 10mo agoand the ones near an event are going to generally be on and with some sort of internet connection. what is your point? it doesn’t need 100% effectiveness to be useful. even 1% with someone as popular as DJI will be a sight to behold!
- bduhan 10mo agoThere is no viable alternative to DJI’s Enterprise offerings. I get that we are trying to bolster domestic tech but this is a stick when it should be a carrot.
- conception 10mo agoIs that what we are trying to do? Does that seem like the most likely plan being executed here?
- roamerz 10mo agoWon’t DJI’s current offerings still be available? I bought a Phantom 4 Pro 5 years ago that I use for mapping and it still does the job. I would expect that Enterprise drones would work the same way. Sure we’re not going to get the next new better faster model so in that scenario it does give time for a domestic company to engineer an offering.
- 20after4 10mo agoLook up thread, everything, including batteries is now banned. You might be able to keep your drone but good luck getting any parts. By the way, nobody makes consumer drone batteries in the US that I know of.
- palmotea 10mo ago> I get that we are trying to bolster domestic tech but this is a stick when it should be a carrot. It's not either-or, it should be both.
- Staceyob-9 10mo ago[dead]
- masonhensley 10mo agoI've been in the bowels of the domestic robot/drone parts supply chain. It's ugly, almost non-existent. I wish there was more of a carrot, but the opportunity for that was frankly 5 years ago. NDAA has been a saving grace that we have anything like https://arkelectron.com/ https://arkelectron.com/ Frankly, they should just rip the bandaid off and apply it to robotics like robovacs/delivery bots/etc scanning homes/offices/critical infrastructure at this point.
- jmward01 10mo agoWhy would anyone build manufacturing to fill a void like this knowing how arbitrary US policy is? One day you are a supplier, the next you are out of business. Long term, telegraphed, intelligent, policy shift is the way to encourage and build a domestic industry, this just makes it hard for us to have nice things.
- tonfa 10mo agoMore countries/regions should have something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_China_2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_in_China_2025
- Animats 10mo agoDespite the amount of sucking up to Trump in the press release, this is not totally stupid. DJI drones do have a data path back to China. Several years ago, the US military, which used to use some DJI drones, decided that the risk was too high. There was an order (in 2022?) to cease using DJI drones and to store them with the batteries removed. On the other hand, Donald Trump Jr. recently acquired an interest in a US drone company, which is selling drone motors to the US military for what seems a high price.
- pbhjpbhj 10mo agoEvery piece of USA tech has a data path back to USA -- who are actively threatening a bunch of countries right now. The obvious corollary is that Canada, Greenland & Denmark (Panama, Venezuela, etc. too) and all their allies should get rid of all Windows computers, all Apple phones, all Tesla, etc, etc. It's hard to imagine USA are not planning attacks right now using these tech vectors, given this threat model is being defended against in this way. It was as equally clever as it was evil to put pressure on us to ditch Chinese tech, so USA can now attack us.
- anovikov 10mo agoThat's a much smaller issue than it sounds, Ukraine produces millions of drones without any Chinese components at all except magnets for electric motors, and li-poly cells. Certainly no Chinese electronics. Even lenses for thermal optics are now Ukrainian-made. They don't even come out as much more expensive anymore - there's still some slight price gap but not a considerable one. Having Chinese drones in the sky is a risk. Having a dependency on their supply is another risk.
- palmotea 10mo ago> That's a much smaller issue than it sounds, Ukraine produces millions of drones without any Chinese components at all except magnets for electric motors, and li-poly cells. Source? My understanding is that Ukrainian drones are pretty much 100% off-the-shelf Chinese components.
- anovikov 10mo agoThat was the case in 2023. Not anymore. Simplest builds still use Chinese parts, but many producers are using all-Ukrainian electronics, designed and produced within Ukraine (GALYCHYNA FC, FRANKIVSK ESC etc. - all clones of SpeedyBee, of course), and some producers are making a further step and use Ukrainian motors, Ukrainian cameras, Ukrainian props (these are so far rather shitty), and frames were made in Ukraine from the beginning. I'm not speaking about bigger - mid-range and long-range drones - they use no Chinese, and sometimes no US-made (for the same reasons), components. https://motor-g.com/en https://motor-g.com/en this company alone produces 100K motors per month now - enough to equip around 7-8% of 4M of quad copters Ukraine makes annually.
- m463 10mo agoPeople seem to think this is anti-competitive. But these companies have interposed themselves between purchasers and their drones. You have to activate your drone using an app, the apps have been connecting back to china since the early DJI products, and with an update they could just fly away. Seriously, why do people need an account to activate/fly?
- ehhthing 10mo agoI don't think US-made drones would be any different.
- pfannkuchen 10mo agoUS made drones are subject to US law.
- atoav 10mo agoWhich famously protects the customer. /s
- jMyles 10mo ago...is this bug being tracked somewhere?
- _moof 10mo agoSo are foreign-made drones when operated in the US. Don't kid yourself. American companies are as anti-consumer as they come.
- pfannkuchen 10mo agoBut no they literally aren’t. If the Chinese government takes data from a Chinese company in China, there is no legal process available to anyone affected because it is outside of US jurisdiction. What is America going to sue China the country in American court? That’s <mentally deficient>. I don’t mean US law is perfectly enforced on US drone companies, that’s <mentally deficient>. I mean that there exists a legal system that harmed people can use, as opposed to the case of Chinese companies where there does not exist etc.
- Swoerd 10mo ago[dead]
- cggvn 10mo agoOf course I’m disturbed by both the proliferation of drones and our administration developing military equipment for a war department instead of defense or rescue. However, I unfortunately am well-aware of a company that made these parts on U.S. soil. I’d be wary of ANY manufacturer of significance within the U.S. that has never had and will never have foreign ties or be influenced by foreign powers that the U.S. in engaged against. The manufacturer I’m aware of was a shitshow with everything that would be important to the military, except for the actual making of the parts, which they were excellent at, at least in certain parts of the company. So because of this, I have to assume that this is a fundamentally ignorant plan to try to nationalize manufacturing for defense, and I’d expect nothing less from our current administration.
- atlasunshrugged 10mo agoIts not clear to me whether this will impact all foreign made drones or just those from China. I get that DJI is the core target, but does this mean that a competitor from Europe (ex. Ukraine which I imagine will have a burgeoning drone market, esp for commercial/defense applications) will need a natsec signoff in order to sell a drone in the US? Edit to add: From additional reporting on the issue, it seems that the answer is yes, it will affect all countries
- m4rtink 10mo agoWon't this place drone users in US in severe disadvantage right at the time when drones of all kinds are being used to provide all kinds of useful services ? In comparison users in countries with better policy planning will reap benefits. Shouldn't there been some sort of planning for a local company to provide at least comparable products before needlessly wreaking havoc like this ?
- sobriquet9 10mo agoThe covered list now includes batteries and motors, even though they don't emit RF. Most are just battery cells, wires, magnets, and connectors, with not even a single transistor inside. They were not previously subject to FCC certification, therefore none are certified, which means none can be imported now.
- tarxvf 10mo ago~~I am not seeing that, why do you say that?~~ Update: answering my own question. It's the ††. https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist https://www.fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist The new addition: Uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country†† and all communications and video surveillance equipment and services listed in Section 1709(a)(1) of the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (Pub. L. 118-159) ††: For purposes of inclusion of UAS and UAS critical components, we incorporate the definitions included in the associated National Security Determination https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/National-Security-Determination-for-UAS.pdf https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/National-Security-De...
- sobriquet9 10mo ago"the following UAS components: Data transmission devices Communications systems Flight controllers Ground control stations and UAS controllers Navigation systems Sensors and Cameras Batteries and Battery Management Systems Motors"
- seg_lol 10mo agoAs stated in the pdf, this is so adversaries cannot assemble drones in the US.
- sobriquet9 10mo agoAre you saying the FCC writes one thing in the regulation, but will enforce something different? The language I see there now is unambiguous, "batteries". Lithium-ion battery for my impact driver can be used to fly an FPV drone. It does not have an FCC certification because it does not emit any RF, and the FCC never required it to be certified before. Now looks like it can no longer be imported, at least not until either Department of War or Department of Homeland Security deems it not a threat.