The Federal Communications Commission is soliciting public comment on a broad slate of regulatory reforms aimed at accelerating domestic unmanned aircraft systems development, while the supply chain framework it established in December 2025 is producing its first concrete results.

In a Public Notice released April 1, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology formally opened a comment period on actions the agency can take to advance what the administration has framed as American drone dominance. Comments are due May 1; reply comments are due May 18.

Executive Orders Drive the Regulatory Agenda

The notice — GN Docket No. 26-74 — is rooted in two executive orders signed in June 2025: Unleashing American Drone Dominance (EO 14307) and Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty (EO 14305). Together, they direct federal agencies including the FCC to prioritize spectrum access, streamline certification, and favor domestically manufactured UAS in federal procurement to the maximum extent permitted by law.

The FCC characterizes its role as providing “U.S. innovators the resources and regulatory clarity they need to develop a domestic UAS ecosystem for commercial and military applications.” The notice covers a wide range of potential regulatory actions:

• Reducing friction in device certification and siting approvals
• Expanding spectrum access for drone testing and commercial operations
• Streamlining experimental licensing for BVLOS links, command and control systems, detect-and-avoid technologies, and secure navigation tools across a broader range of spectrum bands
• Establishing additional drone innovation zones in partnership with federal, state, academic, or private entities
• Coordinating more effectively with other federal agencies to align spectrum policy with national security imperatives

Spectrum: Licensed and Unlicensed

The spectrum dimension of the notice has direct implications for UAS operators and manufacturers. Most commercial drones in the United States currently rely on unlicensed ISM bands for command and control — the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.2 GHz, and 5.8 GHz bands — and the FCC is formally seeking comment on whether those bands remain viable for scaled UAS operations as drone traffic grows and interference risk increases.

On the licensed side, the FCC points to the 5030-5091 MHz aeronautical mobile band, where it adopted Part 88 service rules in August 2024, as a potential home for more reliable command and control links. An interim mechanism provides temporary access to a 20 MHz slice of that band — 5040-5060 MHz — through FAA coordination and FCC registration, with a longer-term band plan including both networked and non-networked services still in development. The FCC is also asking whether to lift aeronautical mobile prohibitions currently in place across several flexible-use terrestrial bands — including the 1.4 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 3.7 GHz, and CBRS bands — and whether to revisit its prior determination that the 960-1164 MHz band is unavailable for UAS operations.

AURA Networks has separately petitioned for access to the 450 MHz band to support long-range links. The 24 GHz band is under consideration for radar and detect-and-avoid operations, and millimeter-wave bands are flagged for short-range payload and non-critical communications.

The Advanced Air Mobility angle is present throughout, with the notice referencing the December 2025 AAM National Strategy released by the interagency AAM Working Group and its recommendations that the FCC, NTIA, FAA, and law enforcement agencies collaborate on spectrum and communications standards for future aviation operations.

The Covered List: From Broad Prohibition to Conditional Approval

The comment period arrives as the Covered List framework the FCC adopted in December 2025 begins to produce its first tangible results. Understanding the current state of the framework requires tracing several months of sequential action.

In December 2025, following a national security determination from an interagency body, the FCC added all UAS and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country to its Covered List — the running inventory of equipment and services deemed to pose unacceptable risks to U.S. national security. The practical effect was a prohibition on new FCC equipment authorization for the importation, marketing, or sale of foreign-produced drones and their critical components, including motors, batteries, flight controllers, ground control stations, and navigation systems. Existing authorized devices can continue to be used; the restriction applies on a going-forward basis to new authorizations.

In January 2026, DoD made a further determination that carved out two temporary exemptions — both running until January 1, 2027: systems on the Defense Contract Management Agency’s Blue UAS Cleared List, and products qualifying as domestic end products under the Buy American Standard, 48 CFR § 25.101(a). The FCC simultaneously established a conditional approval process through which individual manufacturers could seek a case-by-case national security determination, submitting corporate structure, supply chain documentation, and a U.S. manufacturing or onshoring plan to drones@fcc.gov for review.

First Conditional Approvals: Four Systems Cleared

On March 18, the FCC announced the first batch of conditional approvals — four systems that DoD determined do not pose unacceptable national security risks, each cleared through December 31, 2026:

The SiFly Aviation Q12 is a California-based long-endurance commercial UAS targeting public safety and industrial inspection markets. SiFly petitioned the FCC directly, made the national security case for its platform, and committed to an onshoring plan for covered components — a model the broader industry will likely study as it navigates the conditional approval pathway. The Q12 is an all-electric VTOL with two hours of hover endurance and up to three hours of forward flight, designed for drone-as-first-responder programs and large-scale industrial operations.

The Mobilicom SkyHopper Series, M Band, and Tactical Data Link — along with associated controllers and ICE/OS3 security software — represent the only non-aircraft entry in the first batch. The Israeli firm’s conditional approval covers a data link and communications stack rather than a complete airframe, establishing that the pathway applies across the UAS ecosystem to components and software, not only to complete aircraft systems. Mobilicom has existing commercial and defense relationships in the U.S. market.

The ScoutDI Scout 137 is a Norwegian-designed indoor inspection platform built for confined industrial environments including tanks, vessels, and other GPS-denied spaces where conventional drones cannot safely operate. Its conditional approval is notable given the GPS-denied operational context — a system that competes less on the open-air autonomy frontier than on close-quarters industrial data capture.

The Verge Aero X1 is a drone light show platform designed and manufactured in the United States — Verge Aero operates out of Philadelphia under ISO 9001 and AS9100C certification. Its inclusion in the first conditional approval batch may reflect the administration’s concern about securing the airspace around large public gatherings: the original December 2025 national security determination specifically cited the 2026 FIFA World Cup, America250 celebrations, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as contexts in which foreign-manufactured UAS could enable surveillance or disruption.

What the First Batch Signals

The four approvals carry their own signal beyond the individual systems. All are non-Chinese manufacturers. None compete with DJI or Autel at commercial scale. The conditional approval process, in its first application, has cleared systems with specialized enterprise or public safety use cases and, presumably, cleaner supply chain documentation than high-volume consumer platforms could present.

Conditional approvals are temporary by design — all four March exemptions expire December 31, 2026, aligning with the sunset date on the Blue UAS carve-out. That January 1, 2027 cliff is now the most consequential date on the U.S. drone regulatory calendar. Operators and procurement offices that have built acquisition strategies around Blue UAS-cleared platforms, or that are evaluating conditionally approved systems, will need clarity well before that date on whether exemptions are extended, made permanent, or rolled into a revised framework.

The conditional approval process is now the primary pathway for non-Blue-UAS foreign manufacturers seeking U.S. market access — and with four approvals in its first three months, the pace of determinations will be worth watching as more companies work through the submission process at drones@fcc.gov.

How to File

Manufacturers, operators, and other stakeholders can file comments in GN Docket No. 26-74 through the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System at fcc.gov. Comments are due May 1, 2026; reply comments are due May 18, 2026. Submissions related to conditional approvals should be directed to drones@fcc.gov. The FCC’s current Covered List and conditional approval registry can be found at fcc.gov/supplychain/coveredlist.