Over the last week or so of 2025, the staff here at Commercial UAV News took some much-deserved time off to enjoy the holidays and recharge our batteries. Of course, as anyone who follows the UAV industry will know, it has not been a quiet time for the sector, particularly here in the United States. That’s not to say all of the news has been domestic, as news came down across the Atlantic in Europe as well, including new class marks and remote ID laws being passed in the United Kingdom, as well as the news that Amazon’s planned drone delivery service in Italy has been pulled.
For now, though, as we work our way back from break, it seems like a good time to go back and check in on the biggest bit of U.S.-based news from the week before the New Year.
Of course, we refer to the FCC adding foreign-made UAS and critical components to its Covered List, making new foreign-made drones or drones with foreign-made components much more difficult to sell in the United States. This ruling came down on December 22, and while it wasn’t a surprise that a ruling along these lines was made, the broadness of the announcement – mentioning all foreign UAS and critical components – came as a surprise.
We are now a couple of weeks removed from the announcement, and the biggest takeaway is that there is still a lot that the industry is trying to figure out. In some ways, the blanket covering of foreign-made UAS and components is a big surprise, as most were focused on Chinese companies like DJI and Autel. However, during the debates around how to apply this kind of rule that have been going on for some time now, one of the key points repeatedly brought up has been that limiting these rules to single manufacturers or even nations could result in a never-ending chase of shell companies and other potential loopholes.
Instead, the announcement noted that the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security have authority to make a “specific determination” to the FCC that a given UAS or component does not pose a risk and can therefore be sold within the U.S. In other words, there will be a review process led by the executive branch for everything, but not necessarily a ban on all foreign-made UAS, which was the implication some saw when the announcement was first made. By what criteria these decisions will be made and the process for making them still remains to be seen, though, and the industry will be watching closely to see how this evolves moving forward.
There are also questions about whether or not the FCC has the legal authority to regulate everything mentioned within these new additions to its Covered List. The FCC, by law, is charged with regulating “interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable.” Many components within UAS, and by extension the UAS itself, fall within this jurisdiction as they transmit radio frequencies. However, the FCC’s announcement also mentions components such as batteries and motors under examples of critical UAS components, which would not fit into this jurisdiction. How exactly that will work with this ruling and what jurisdiction will be enforced is going to be critical to watch, but as of now is unclear.
This is news that the UAV industry has been awaiting for years, and even though it’s finally here, it doesn’t mean that everything is cleared up. Organizations around the U.S. have been planning for this moment, as many of them across various industries like law enforcement, agriculture, and surveying have been relying on drones from DJI and need to consider how they move forward. It’s important to note, of course, that the ruling does not affect any drones that have already been bought and in use, but future models could be out of reach.
For those trying to plan for the future, that fact is critical. All organizations that are utilizing drones for at least some part of their workflow need to be planning for what is next in terms of their procurement and equipment usage moving forward. That being said, one of the only things that is clear coming out of this FCC announcement is that there is still a lot that needs to be cleared up. In the meantime, organization leaders can be assured that their current inventory is still viable, hopefully providing at least a little bit of a cushion before some of these big questions – and others that are sure to pop up in the coming weeks and months – are answered.
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