Washington and the drone industry: legislation, procurement, security reviews, and agency policy beyond the FAA.
DJI Enterprise published a Drone as First Responder scaling guide on August 4, one day after the FCC's proposal to prohibit imports and sales of foreign-made drone docking stations hit the Federal Register. The playbook's flagship American case study, El Paso, is already applying for federal money to replace its DJI fleet.
More than 90 teams are flying the DARPA Lift Challenge at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force through August 9, chasing a 4:1 payload-to-weight ratio for a share of $6.5 million. DARPA's own prize rules cut the top three awards in half if nobody clears 4:1, and the agency still has not resolved what the FCC Covered List means for the parts these American teams built with.
Civilian drones entered restricted airspace over the Spokane County wildfires at least 26 times in three days, repeatedly grounding helicopters and air tankers while three uncontained fires burned homes below. Two operators have been cited, and the cases have been referred to the FAA.
Sikorsky has completed the initial ground and flight test phase of its Nomad 100 tail-sitting drone for DARPA's EVADE program, sending the 18-foot hybrid-electric aircraft to a government facility for a more demanding multirole test campaign.
USDOT forecasts $9M for FY26 Drone Infrastructure Inspection Grants: notice Sept 15, applications due Nov 15, five awards, 50% match. States asked for $50M.
The $820 million Office of Strategic Capital loan funds components for Group 1 and Group 2 military aircraft. Drone Dominance Phase II bars Chinese motors this month, the FCC carve-outs keeping commercial drones authorized expire January 1, 2027, and the startup building American motors for spray drones has an intern.
JIATF-401 awarded CACI a $500 million counter-drone ceiling on Thursday. The Office of Strategic Capital signed an $820 million conditional loan with Performance Drone Works on Friday. Both halves now answer to the same deputy secretary, and neither number is money out the door yet.
Reuters obtained the internal file on Volkswagen's failed V.MO air taxi. No ban touched it and no trade restriction blocked it. VW lost a footrace, and the infrastructure gap behind that loss is the number the US drone industry should be reading.
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