There it is – the FCC Order: DA-25-1086A1.pdf
Bans all foreign made drones, quadcopters, radio-controlled aircraft (they seem to fall under the same UAS designation) and components including batteries, controllers, motors, servos, ESCs, etc.
Unless they are approved for sale by the Pentagon; but there is no budget or direction to the Pentagon to test products such it seems they won’t do testing unless Congress directs them to.
Supposedly previously approved products may be sold – but then there is wording about those in current inventory. This seems to imply that things like batteries, which eventually die, might not be replaceable in the future. This is confusing and would lead to the eventual grounding of existing quadcopters (which remain okay to fly for now). The US has no domestic manufacturing of batteries, motors and servos.
China makes 99% of all drone/RC batteries, and 90% of the components used in making model aircraft. (See FCC Banned Foreign Drone Batteries, But China Makes 99% Of Them) Per the article, analysts estimate it will take up to 5 years for US companies to supply necessary components.
The only alternative is to buy commercially made drones from US companies – none of which are marketed to the consumer. But the US made drones need batteries too – and currently get them from China! This seems to be a problem.
US drone makers sell only to businesses and government – at 2x to 10x the price. I was not able to find a US drone maker that would sell an individual drone to a Part 107 licensed pilot – because their websites say they sell only to “enterprises”.
Skydio was the only US company to make a drone for consumers, but they abandoned the consumer market and sell only to “enterprise” customers: Consumer Drone Offering FAQ – Skydio
No one was aware of this upcoming action. It apparently arose from a secret national security cabal that directed the FCC to ban all imported drones, and was then released on Dec 22, with Congressional and government offices closed. The FCC and others were discussing bans on DJI and possibly Autel – but they never told the public they planned to ban all drones and components from other countries. There was no public input into the process. That’s because out of nowhere, they did this as a “national security emergency”.
Some complications are that radio-controlled toy cars use many of the same components as RC model aircraft – including controllers, batteries, motors, and servos. How will the FCC distinguish between a motor used on a toy RC car and a toy RC airplane?
The FCC, itself, has no legal authority to regulate batteries and motors, so there’s that problem too.
The RC hobby is nearly 100 years old. There are literally millions of toy aircraft and quadcopters in the United States. Not one member of the public has ever been killed by one of these.
This order has the potential to shut down the drone industry – think of media companies using drones to report stories, search and rescue to locate lost people, roof and tower inspections that now use drones instead of putting people at risk, land surveying done with drones, solar PV companies that use drones to inspect and measure roofs before doing an array design – and so much more.
The radio control aircraft hobby seems to have been shot in the head if they can no longer sell imported model aircraft or components. Many hobby stores, which were struggling, will go out of business.
Our local high schools’ UAV/drone training programs (design, build, fly, Part 107 licenses, applications) will be shut down. Our local community college offers an aerial survey program – part of land surveying and providing photogrammetry services. What will happen to these programs if the only drones available cost $10,000?
The FCC, in its order, asserted that foreign made drones, such as those from DJI, could be magically commanded to take flight en masse and disrupt the U.S. (“coordinating swarms of
privately owned UAS for disruptive or coercive effect,“)
That is nonsense.
How does my DJI drone, in a zipped carrying case, inside a metal cabinet, inside my office, magically power on, escape its confines and take flight outside to join the DJI controlled swarm attacking the United States? And how does it do that when the battery is not in the drone during storage?
- Will the FAA mandate a Part 107 license for toy aircraft flight (this seems de facto required since only “commercial” grade model aircraft may be purchased in the U.S.)?
- Will US makers, which have demonstrated they cannot compete with outside manufacturers, ever build a consumer priced product? If not, then the low end of the drone service industry in the US is destroyed.
- Is the real purpose of this to eliminate all non-commercial uses of drones and clear the airspace for drone delivery services from Amazon, Walmart, UPS and others?
- If someone from outside the U.S. visits the US and brings their own drone, will their drone be confiscated at the border as “foreign made”? (This is an issue for Canadian and Mexican visitors and others, including Europeans, visiting the U.S.)
May be someone in government will come to their senses – this Order seems random, based on impossible assumptions, and affects about 80% of local law enforcement and fire departments, other government agencies, plus hundreds of thousands of small businesses and local media outlets using drones.
Trump is ending globalization – products will become more expensive and the U.S. will fall further behind the rest of the world. While the rest of the world will continue to use cost effective drones sourced from the world, the US has gone full protectionism – to ensure that US products remain high priced and non-competitive.
Trump’s policy – banning batteries and killing the US industry is incoherent. Trump seems to be an economic dufus with his head stuck in 19th century protectionism. We’ve gone from a world that adopted globalization and free trade – to protectionism and the end of free trade. Why?
