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Washington
Washington state drone news: regulations, industry developments, innovative uses, events, and the impact on businesses and communities in the state.
Opinion: DJI and The American Drone Delusion: We’re Not Catching Up, We’re Falling Behind
On December 23, 2025, the FCC added DJI to its Covered List, effectively banning the import and sale of any new DJI drones in the United States. Future DJI products will never legally reach American consumers. The ban, justified by…
Veteran DFR Operator’s 10,000-Flight Reality Check: Stop Panicking About The FCC Ban
While agencies across America scramble to figure out what the FCC’s foreign drone ban means for their fleets, one veteran public safety drone operator is offering the kind of practical advice that only comes from putting thousands of hours on…
Helsing’s Keybotic Acquisition Reveals Europe’s Real Defense Vulnerability: It’s Not in the Sky
When Germany’s hottest defense startup quietly acquires a Spanish robot dog company, the headlines should make you pause. Helsing, the €12 billion AI defense giant that has dominated European drone coverage for the past year, just added Barcelona-based Keybotic to…
Palantir Co-Founder Leads $11.8M Investment in Nigerian Drone Startup as African Defense Tech Emerges
The same Silicon Valley investors who built Anduril into a $30 billion defense giant are now betting on a different kind of drone company: one founded by two twenty-somethings in Abuja, Nigeria, that manufactures its systems on the African continent…
Drone Soccer Helps Asheboro High School Build a STEM Powerhouse
Drone soccer sounds like something invented during a late night brainstorming session involving caffeine and spare propellers, but at Asheboro High School in North Carolina, it has quietly become one of the most effective STEM programs in the state, as…
Commerce Department Drops Drone Restrictions as Trump Prioritizes Xi Diplomacy Over China Hawks
I spent the morning reading a story that should make every drone pilot pay attention to what is happening in Washington, not just with the FCC, but with the broader diplomatic chess game being played between the United States and…
DJI’s Shell Company Gambit Backfired Spectacularly, and the Entire Drone Industry Paid the Price
I’ve spent months documenting DJI’s network of suspected shell companies, from Skyany to Spatial Hover to Jovistar. What started as investigative journalism became a front-row seat to watching a company outsmart itself into oblivion. Now that the dust has settled…
A Silicon Valley Founder Exposed Why U.S. Drone Manufacturing Won’t Scale Anytime Soon
I’ve been reading a lot of optimistic press releases about American drone independence lately. The Pentagon wants a million drones. Executive orders promise to unleash domestic production. Politicians declare that we’re breaking free from Chinese supply chains. Then a defense-tech…
Eric Schmidt’s AI Drones Hit 70% Kill Rate as Commercial Tech Goes to War
The drone skills you learned for your Part 107 business are now battlefield capabilities. That’s the uncomfortable reality buried in a massive New York Times investigation published this week, and it should concern every commercial operator in America. C.J. Chivers…
Chip War Author: FCC Ban Succeeds Where Trump Tariffs Failed Against DJI
It was clear that Trump’s tariffs were never going to stop DJI. Now one of the most influential voices in US-China tech competition is making the same argument in the Financial Times. Chris Miller, author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist book…
FCC Foreign Drone Ban Could Hit US Farmers Where It Hurts Most
When the FCC quietly added foreign made drones and components to its Covered List last week, the move was framed as a clean national security win. Chinese manufacturer DJI was effectively frozen out of future approvals, a decision the agency…
FEMA’s $500M Counter-Drone Program Launches With World Cup Funding
I’ve been tracking the expansion of police counter-drone capabilities for months, and what just happened is bigger than the headlines suggest. Missouri received $14.24 million in federal funding for World Cup drone security, but that’s not the real story. The…