The FAA has less to say about the drone industry than the FCC
The FAA regulates aircraft. So it is strange to watch the FCC decide what happens to drones.
The FCC restricted foreign-made transmitting equipment across the board: routers, robot vacuums, drones, and more.
The economic impact of these restrictions impact any company using drones for any reason, and are worth understanding better.
This blog entry is kind of a rant - its all kinds of information about issues caused by poor or opaque decisions on the part of the FCC, and what limited response we can do.
What 25 states reported
The Oregon Department of Aviation compiled responses from 25 state transportation agencies through a NASAO member outreach and published a report on February 28, 2026. Using actual inventory counts, this report is (as far as I know) one of the best reports of the impact of the FCC's damage to the drone industry.
- Wisconsin grounded its whole fleet.
- Oregon flies one NDAA-approved aircraft out of 22.
- Colorado grounded 16 units and kept five.
- Here in New York, 23 of our 25 state drones sit restricted on federally funded work.
- Idaho watched a replacement airframe climb from roughly $15,000 in May 2025 to over $42,000.
The white paper models national transition exposure at $50 million to $2 billion, depending on how many local fleets you count. That range covers state DOTs and local transportation agencies. It does not cover groups like law enforcement and other public responders. Private operators in Agriculture, real estate, utilities, and the thousands companies, small or large, who have bought a drone to do a job sit outside of white paper's scope entirely.
Section 5.5 names the group nobody wrote policy for: contractors and consultants on federal-aid projects whose toolchains depend on restricted systems. That is one of my business verticals, described in a government white paper, with no transition funding attached to it. I can't work in it right now due to the Federal Communications Commission.
The paper also flags the capability gap that matters most to me. States report that compliant alternatives cost FAR more and fall short on mapping-grade survey, lidar payloads, and established software workflows. Solar inspection and orthomosaic work sits right in that hole. Impacts of Federal Restrictions on State UAS Programs starts the story, and late last month the FCC continued it. They are proposing additional restrictions on drones with LIDAR, and infrared sensors (which are in nearly all consumer drones as landing or range-finding sensors) and in agricultural platforms. It also includes docking stations and any drone over 55 pounds. These restrictions of new imports or marketing of drones and drone equipment effectively make all imports the "last ones" we could get. Combine that with a the ban on new models since the end of lat year, and now all drones imported into the USA (with limited exceptions) are irreplaceable. The FCC frame this as protecting against foreign drone dangers and a prop to US based drone manufacturers. Here is the FCC's page on it. My take on this is that it really just props up some military contractors.
The FCC does offer updates to the Blue UAS Cleared List and Buy American exceptions from January 1, 2027 to January 1, 2028, and eliminated the termination date entirely for equipment granted Conditional Approval, so there are SOME limited exceptions.
Florida already ran this experiment
Florida banned Chinese-made drones for government agencies in 2023. The state grounded roughly $200 million in working equipment and funded $25 million in replacement grants.
The University of South Florida was supposed to publish its security analysis of the confiscated drones by summer 2024. Eighteen months later, nothing. No report, no papers.
The operational record from Florida Senate testimony:
- An Orlando Police sergeant reported zero DJI failures over five years, then five losses across two approved manufacturers in eighteen months.
- A Palm Beach County deputy watched a replacement battery catch fire on his vehicle floorboard while parked and not in use.
- Collier County reported its American-made replacements could not fly at night because the thermal camera was unsafe to use.
- Palm Beach County dropped from more than 100 drone missions a month to five.
Preparing for the future of commercial drones
Replacement cost per platform runs about $5 to 100,000 today. Under full implementation I need to up my replacement plan for roughly $50,000 more as a conservative estimate. Insurance will go up. New drone models from US manufacturers have also embraced the subscription model, meaning that for some features I may need to pay significant annual fees just to use the equipment I own, on top of insurance, and everything else.
In the ugliest scenario I have war-gamed, I have to sell my fleet overseas if my fleet was grounded due to the federal fear of unfounded risks. That's the doomsday scenario though. The December 2025 Covered List action applied going forward and did not ground aircraft already in service and it is likely that as hurtful as it is, that model would be the approach the government uses. My current fleet (mavic 3, Matrice 4, Flip, etc) are all legal, operative, and kept in good condition. My replacement fleet is the problem. The Drone Advocacy Alliance is now gearing up to ask pilots to fight a proposed FCC ban on already-approved drones, so retroactive revocation is back in play, and that is the piece I watch, and you can comment directly as well. Use 26-189 as the docket number and you can comment until September 2, 2026. DroneXL has a piece on what is at stake for DJI as well.
Until then, I keep flying, giving my customers the best and most beautiful data you can get at the best prices I can give them, and preparing for any of the future.
Thank you for reading and if you need a drone photo or 360 photos - The Get Started Now link is below.
