Drone Regulation News: FAA, NDAA, Blue UAS

The town's ruling that let the drone base go ahead is gone too. Amazon says it will file a revised plan, facing a state certificate and a pending pad ban.

Illustration of small drone motors, circuit boards and battery packs laid out on a factory workbench beside a half-assembled quadcopter frame

Nov 4, 2026

Pentagon Offers Neros Up to $450M to Make Drone Parts

The loan is conditional and nothing is drawn yet. Neros adds $165M of its own and plans to sell motors and radios to other drone makers.

Illustration of a grey quadcopter with teal arm accents beside a lattice mobile phone mast with three white panel antennas, above pale faceted ground on an off-white background

Oct 29, 2026

FCC Opens the 800 MHz Mobile Phone Band to Drones

The FCC voted 3-0 to lift a 1991 ban aimed at phones on planes. AT&T and Verizon, which hold licences in the band, asked for the change.

FCC building exterior with radio tower in background, drone spectrum regulation

Oct 29, 2026

What the FCC's Spring Drone Spectrum Review Has Produced

From the April notice: an 800 MHz order adopted on 29 October and a test waiver to 2029. A drone licence category and test corridors have not followed.

Illustration of a generic white quadcopter on a turntable inside a grey radio test chamber lined with blue foam pyramids, on an off-white background

Oct 29, 2026

FCC Votes to Stop Recognising Test Labs in China From 2028

By the FCC's count, 82% of device testing last year happened in one country. From December 2028, a drone's radio will need a lab elsewhere.

Illustration of a white electric delivery multirotor with a small parcel on a tether, standing on a low launch platform beside a closed cardboard box

Oct 27, 2026

FCC Exempts Manna's 383.2 Drone From Its Covered List

The Irish delivery company is building up in Tulsa. The approval holds only while Manna keeps to a plan to move production to the US.

Illustration of an empty concrete drone launch pad with a painted circle behind a padlocked chain-link gate, a low grey warehouse behind it and a row of houses beyond the trees

Oct 27, 2026

Three Towns Move Against Amazon Drone Hubs in One Week

Towns cannot regulate the airspace, so they are refusing the launch pads. Northglenn made its hub rules final on 26 October.

Illustration of five small military drones in a compact row on a pale floor, in olive, blue-grey, sand, charcoal and green, with a green tag on each of the last two

Oct 24, 2026

Blue UAS List Added at Least 20 Drones in 2026, Not 49

The official list dates 49 entries to 2026, but batch dates and repeats inflate it. 16 were cleared earlier; nine are unresolved; one is a part.

Illustration of small drone motors, a camera module and a battery pack laid out in an open parts crate on a workbench

Oct 23, 2026

Unusual Machines Gets $16.9M Order From a Company It Funded

Unusual Machines put $30 million into Powerus in June. The order is about three times Powerus's revenue for the first half of 2026.

Illustration of a stack of rectangular drone battery packs on a workbench beside a small quadcopter frame with its battery bay open

Oct 22, 2026

Unusual Machines Closes $52M Deal for Drone Battery Maker

Half the price is a cash bonus tied to $10 million of battery sales in two years. A Pentagon ban on six Chinese battery makers starts in 2027.

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One email every Friday: the week's drone approvals, bans, contracts and tenders, checked against the official documents, plus the dates coming up.

Week to 29 Oct: 5 government buys, the largest €84M for Weibel Scientific; 6 additions to the official lists; 1 funding round. Read the latest issue

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FAA Regulation

NDAA

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Blue UAS

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