FCC Adds All Foreign Drones To Covered List, Plus DJI Mini 5 Pro Propeller Guard Leak

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. I only have two stories for you this week, although one is kind of a long one. The FCC adds all UAS and UAS critical components manufactured in a foreign country to the covered list. And that was kind of a plot twist. The second story has to do with DJI. They appear to be releasing a new prop guard for the Mini 5 Pro.

Here’s the full video breakdown on the Pilot Institute YouTube channel.

The FCC Covered List Bombshell

In a twist of events, the FCC added not only DJI and Autel to the FCC covered list, as we were expecting, but also every drone that is produced in a foreign country, sending shockwaves throughout the entire industry.

The FCC also added UAS critical components that are produced in a foreign country to the covered list, including some that don’t require FCC approval, which is a bit of a head scratcher. A UAS critical component is defined as data transmission devices, communication systems, flight controls, ground control stations, UAS controllers, navigation systems, sensors and cameras, batteries, battery management systems, and motors.

That’s right. Motors that have nothing to do with the FCC.

But before I go any further, I want to reassure you that yes, you can still fly your drone if you’re a civilian. You can still buy existing models of your favorite brand, foreign or not, while supplies last. And no, your drone is not going to be bricked. You can still continue flying it. Only future models are affected.

Being on the FCC covered list means just that. It means that the company cannot import, market, or sell new products into the United States.

The Exemption Process

The FCC memo does mention that there is a process by which the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security can make a specific determination that a given UAS does not pose a risk. At the moment, the process to do that is very unclear, but I’m sure we’ll get more when all those people come back from their break because they dumped this right before going on vacation.

How They Bypassed The Audit

The news came in a nine-page memo in which the FCC explains that they bypass the audit requirement that we have been talking about for about a year now. I’m going to quote what they said:

“Although section 1709 requires a determination by an appropriate national security agency rather than an executive branch interagency body, this determination satisfies the law because several appropriate national security agencies concurred in this determination.”

It’s unclear who was part of that meeting, but they indeed determined that, and I quote:

“UAS produced in a foreign country pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States and to the safety and security of US persons and should be included to the FCC’s covered list.”

Quick pause here. Yes, they did bypass the audit completely by basically having a bunch of meetings and saying, “Yeah, China bad. We’re going to put them on the FCC list.” Done.

The “Evidence” They Provided

But they also provide supporting evidence, in quotation marks, as to what the national security threat is. Including the fact that, again I quote from the document:

“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.”

And another quote:

“Drug cartels are also reportedly using foreign-produced UAS to smuggle drugs into the United States and carry out attacks.”

Now I’m also going to read a long paragraph here from the document because I think it’s important for you to understand why you can’t go buy a new DJI drone model going forward to fly with your kids at the park or to just photograph a house for a realtor. Here’s the quote:

“Permitting UAS critical components from foreign countries into the United States undermines the resiliency of our UAS industrial base, increases the risk to our national airspace, and creates a potential for large-scale attacks during large gatherings. Even when marketed as commercial or recreational, certain legal regimes in foreign countries can compel entities to provide real-time telemetry, imagery, and location data above US soil or to change the UAS behavior via remote software updates. This poses clear risk that foreign countries could leverage UAS produced with critical components made in a foreign country to engage in intelligence collection, acts of terrorism, attacks on critical infrastructure in the US homeland, or massive supply chain disruption.”

The Potential “Incidents”

One last quote where they talk about the potential incidents that drones could cause:

“Such incidents could include disabling fleets of ostensibly commercial drones used by US public safety agencies, coordinating swarms of privately owned UAS for disruptive or coercive effect, or leveraging data collected by the UAS platform to conduct surveillance or intelligence operations.”

Now, side note here. I would love to know how DJI is going to take the drone off the shelf that’s in that room over there, put the battery on a charger, put the battery in the drone, take the drone outside, all remotely mind you, fly the drone, come back inside because they forgot the SD card, and then make a swarm with all the other drones, your drone, and everybody else’s drones here.

That’s all I have to say. I can’t say much more.

What This Means For You

I’m going to repeat that this decision does not affect existing drone models. You can still buy and you can still fly anything that you want. But if you’re working on a federally funded project, you will likely not be able to use a drone or a brand that has been added to the covered list, even if it’s an existing drone.

It appears that Blue UAS and those that are already on approved DoD lists can still be flown at the moment.

Please let me know in the comments what you think about all of this and how this is going to affect you.

DJI Mini 5 Pro 360 Propeller Guards Leak

And to lighten things up, leaked photos of something that does not need FCC approval because it’s just a piece of plastic. The official 360-degree propeller guards from DJI for the Mini 5 Pro.

There are images circulating on Reddit and other websites that are showing that it’s not just the prop guards themselves that are mounted on the drone, but also it shows the retail box and all the graphics and everything.

What’s really interesting here is that this isn’t just a simple clip-on. It looks like it’s got a full circular guard that wraps around each of the propellers. Even more telling, the propellers themselves look different. They’re shorter. Clearly designed to work specifically with that system.

This all lines up with a recent firmware update for the Mini 5 Pro that specifically mentioned compatibility with the new prop guards. So this leak kind of makes sense in a way.

For those of us that have Operations Over People waivers, these prop guards will make the Mini 5 Pro able to operate over people. So we’re actually pretty excited about this.

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays obviously to all of you. I know it’s not always the brightest news that we have, but it is the news that we have. From everyone here at Pilot Institute, we do hope that you have a safe and happy holiday.

And remember, don’t be that guy, even if you work for the FCC. See you later.