NDAA 2026: Local Police to Gain New Powers to Take Down Your Drone

We’ve tracked counter-drone legislation for years, but the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) changes everything for every drone pilot in America.

The bill passed the House 312-112 on December 10 and awaits final Senate action this week before President Trump’s expected signature. For the first time, it creates a federal framework allowing certain state and local police to detect, track, and in some cases disrupt or seize drones posing a “credible threat” at stadiums and other covered sites. Officers must complete federal training and use approved systems under DOJ, DHS, and FAA oversight.

The legislation also establishes a government-backed “SkyFoundry” program to manufacture domestic drones and creates new and enhanced felony penalties—up to five years in prison in certain cases—for serious and repeat violations involving national defense airspace, critical facilities, or using drones to facilitate other felonies.

The 3,086-page bill represents the most significant expansion of counter-drone authority in U.S. history. For recreational pilots, commercial operators, and the drone delivery industry, the implications are immediate and substantial.

What Happens Next: The Path to Becoming Law

The FY 2026 NDAA is not yet law. Here’s what still needs to happen:

The House passed the compromise bill on December 10, 2025, with a strong bipartisan vote of 312-112. The legislation now moves to the Senate, which voted 75-22 on December 12 to proceed to the measure. Senate leaders plan to hold a final passage vote this week, likely by December 17 or 18.

Once the Senate passes the identical text that the House approved, the bill will be “enrolled” and sent to President Trump’s desk for his signature. The White House has already issued a Statement of Administration Policy strongly supporting the bill, stating that “the Trump Administration strongly supports passage of S. 1071” and urging swift action. President Trump is expected to sign the NDAA into law before the end of the year.

The NDAA is one of Congress’s only must-pass annual bills and has become law each of the last 64 fiscal years. Once signed, implementation will proceed through the Department of Defense and other agencies issuing guidance and rulemakings aligned with the act’s provisions.

SAFER SKIES Act: Local Cops Can Now Take Down Your Drone

Title LXXXVI of the NDAA, known as the SAFER SKIES Act (Sections 8601-8607), fundamentally transforms who can legally disable a drone in America. Previously, only federal agencies like the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and Secret Service possessed counter-drone authority under 6 U.S.C. 124n.

Now, for the first time in U.S. history, state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law‑enforcement agencies can be authorized—after completing federal training and certification—to detect, track, and take mitigation actions, including, in extreme cases, disabling or destroying an aircraft, against drones that pose a “credible threat” to designated covered facilities and events, using only approved technologies and under DOJ/DHS and FAA‑coordinated oversight. These facilities include critical infrastructure, correctional facilities, and venues hosting large-scale public gatherings like NFL stadiums.

As we reported when the House passed the SAFER SKIES Act two days ago, the NFL has documented more than 2,000 drone incursions per season for each of the past three years into restricted airspace around its stadiums. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, which the U.S. will host across 11 cities, drove much of the urgency behind this legislation.

Before any SLTT agency can exercise these powers, DOJ and DHS must issue regulations and stand up a national training and certification program (the “schoolhouse”), and officers must complete that training. Agencies will be limited to using equipment on a federally approved technology list, with mandatory reporting and federal oversight of each mitigation action. Any drone seized under this authority is subject to forfeiture under state and local law.

“Over the next three years, the United States will host numerous major events that necessitated the expansion of these authorities to combat the emerging drone threats,” a White House official told ESPN. “The administration is committed to ensuring these world-class international events [are] safe and secure for all participants.”

New Felony Penalties: 5 Years for Airspace Violations

Section 8605 of the SAFER SKIES Act dramatically increases criminal penalties for drone misuse, creating new liabilities for both recreational and commercial pilots.

The key changes include:

• Felony Penalty: Up to 5 years in federal prison for certain serious or repeat violations involving national defense airspace
• Facilitation Enhancement: Penalties are doubled (or increased by 5 years) if a drone is used to facilitate any felony offense
• Contraband Delivery: Using a drone to deliver contraband to a prison now carries a specific, heightened sentence

These penalties build on the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which already increased fines to $75,000 per infraction. The FAA retains authority to suspend or revoke pilot certificates for unsafe or unauthorized operations.

Risk for Commercial Operators and Drone Delivery

The SAFER SKIES Act creates new operational hazards for commercial drone operators, particularly delivery fleets. With local police authorized to “disrupt” or “seize” drones they perceive as threats, a delivery drone flying near a stadium or critical infrastructure could be grounded or destroyed by local authorities if deemed a “credible threat.”

The legislation does include safeguards. Sections 8606 and 8607 require DHS and DOJ to coordinate with the FAA to ensure counter-drone actions do not adversely affect civil aviation safety or commercial efficiency. This effectively gives the FAA a seat at the table to protect the National Airspace System from overzealous local C-UAS usage.

But for Part 107 pilots and delivery operators, the message is clear: the airspace around stadiums, critical infrastructure, and large public gatherings just became significantly more hazardous.

SkyFoundry: Government-Backed Drone Manufacturing

Section 914 of the NDAA recognizes that restricting Chinese drones creates a capability gap and directs DoD to stand up specific programs to bolster the domestic small‑UAS industrial base.

The bill mandates a high-level Small-UAS Industrial Base Working Group under the Deputy Secretary of Defense to analyze the sUAS supply chain. Its primary directive is to “identify likely investments to remediate fragile or non-U.S. suppliers.”

Most significantly, the NDAA incorporates the concept of a “SkyFoundry”‑style program—an Army‑led effort to help rapidly field small UAS at competitive cost while trying not to undermine the commercial industrial base. In practice, this is envisioned as a dedicated domestic production and integration pipeline for U.S.‑made drones.

The legislation points toward a government‑backed incubator or production partnership model and contemplates options like government‑owned, contractor‑operated facilities to scale output. The explicit goal is targeting the price advantage of Chinese competitors like DJI.

This follows the Trump administration’s aggressive push for domestic drone production through a $1.4 billion funding initiative and the June 2025 Executive Order “Unleashing American Drone Dominance.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pledged to approve hundreds of American-made drone models while “cutting red tape.”

DJI and Chinese Drone Restrictions

The FY26 NDAA does not include new direct bans on DJI, but it reinforces and expands the framework targeting Chinese drone manufacturers.

Section 8531 mandates rigorous biennial reviews to determine if foreign companies qualify for the “Non-SDN Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List.” The goal is harmonizing blacklists between the DoD’s 1260H List and Commerce’s Entity List, ensuring that companies listed by the Pentagon face automatic pressure from Treasury and Commerce sanctions regimes.

Section 1532 prohibits “covered artificial intelligence” from DoD systems, with “covered AI” encompassing systems developed by companies in “covered nations” (China) or those on the 1260H list. Since modern commercial drones rely on AI for obstacle avoidance and tracking, this effectively bans Chinese drone software from any defense-connected interface.

Section 162 strictly bans “covered LiDAR technology” manufactured by Chinese companies from DoD operation or procurement, further squeezing Chinese components out of the supply chain.

The FY25 NDAA’s “review trigger” remains in place. DJI faces a December 23, 2025 deadline to pass a security audit or be automatically added to the FCC Covered List, which would block new authorizations for their equipment in the U.S. As we’ve extensively documented, no federal agency has begun this mandated audit despite DJI requesting the review nine months ago.

DroneXL’s Take on the NDAA 2026

We’ve spent 2025 documenting the expansion of police counter-drone powers, from Louisiana becoming the first state to authorize local drone interdiction to the FBI training center deputizing officers for the 2026 World Cup. The SAFER SKIES Act federalizes what was happening piecemeal at the state level.

The pattern is clear. What starts as “stadium security” or “emergency response” tends to expand. In Las Vegas, police drones launched as first responder tools are now deployed from rooftop networks across the city, drawing ACLU scrutiny. In Oregon, Senate Bill 238A sparked massive public opposition over surveillance concerns. Syracuse lawmakers have blocked their police drone program four times in 2025, demanding privacy protections before deployment.

The SAFER SKIES Act is narrowly written for sporting events and critical infrastructure, and that’s good. But once thousands of state and local officers are trained in counter-drone operations and equipped with jamming technology, the pressure to use those capabilities beyond stadiums will be immense.

Meanwhile, the SkyFoundry program represents Congress acknowledging what we’ve been saying for years: you cannot ban your way to domestic drone manufacturing supremacy. The Florida DJI ban disaster proved that removing Chinese drones without viable alternatives simply destroys capability. The question is whether government-backed manufacturing can actually close the price gap with Chinese competitors, or whether politically connected companies will simply collect subsidies while delivering inferior products at inflated prices.

For recreational pilots, the message is unchanged: stay away from stadium TFRs, critical infrastructure, and anywhere large events are being held. The consequences just got significantly more serious.

What do you think about local police gaining the authority to destroy drones? Share your thoughts on the SAFER SKIES Act in the comments below.