Washington and the drone industry: legislation, procurement, security reviews, and agency policy beyond the FAA.
US government drone policy coverage tracks the federal agencies actually setting the rules, separately from the state and local coverage found elsewhere on the site, because a Congressional bill and a city drone permit move on entirely different tracks.
The FAA generates the largest volume of coverage, from rulemaking to the 1,000-plus agencies now cleared for Drone as First Responder flights. The FCC has become just as consequential lately through certification, not flight rules: it functions as a chokepoint for any drone sold in the US, which is how DJI models have ended up blocked without a direct FAA ban attached.
Defense spending moves the largest dollar amounts of anything covered here. The Pentagon committed $1.3 billion to drones in two days, split between counter-drone systems and domestic parts manufacturing, and the White House summoned 40 drone companies as a tariff deadline and Beijing loomed, pulling industry directly into a policy meeting usually reserved for agency staff. The Department of Defense desk tracks these contracts as they land.
NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and FCC filings round out the federal picture. Every US government drone story is in the feed below.
Last updated September 11, 2026 — the feed below updates with every new story.
Welcome to your weekly UAS news update. We have three stories for you this week: a Zipline drone has a mishap near Houston, a Part 108 progress update from the TSA and OIRA, and the FCC gets over 3,800 comments on its military-grade drone proposal. Let's get to it.
The White House list for its Drone Dominance event names 40 entries. All three Trump-family drone firms made it. Ten of eleven Gauntlet I winners did not.
A new federal rule lets certified local agencies detect and disable drones. The government expects about 1,500 of them to sign up within two years.
Pilot Institute coded all 3,824 readable filings in FCC docket 26-189 against the 11 questions the Commission actually asked. Here is what the record says.
Amazon told Baton Rouge its delivery drones beat an idling truck. Its own FAA noise filing puts the delivery hover at 92.1 decibels.
Amazon promises drone delivery in nearly 500 US cities by December. An FAA approval run and one national document explain how it got there this fast.
Infinite Electronics VP Gabriel Guglielmi on NDAA parts, anti-jamming antennas, and why counter-drone demand now outpaces drones, from Commercial UAV Expo 2026.
Amazon has the DJI Mini 3 at $315 for Labor Day, $104 off list. The base package is a real discount. The DJI RC and Fly More bundles are not.
The FAA, by a wide margin, covering everything from Drone as First Responder waivers to airspace rulemaking. The FCC has become the second-most consequential agency recently through its certification decisions affecting DJI specifically.
Through equipment certification. Any drone sold in the US needs FCC authorization for its radio components, which has made FCC certification labs and their guidance on drone screening a real chokepoint, blocking new DJI models even without a direct FAA flight ban.
Both. The Department of Defense desk covers major contracts and programs, such as the Pentagon committing $1.3 billion to drones in two days, alongside the civilian rulemaking coming out of the FAA and FCC, because the two increasingly move together on China-related restrictions.
One email with the drone news that matters — DJI, FAA, public safety, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
