The FCC added DJI to its Covered List at the end of last year, blocking approval of any new DJI products in the U.S. Now the agency is looking at the drones already on shelves.
What is the existing ban?
Congress passed the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2024. Buried in it was a requirement that an “appropriate national security agency” run a risk assessment on Chinese drones within 12 months. No agency ever got the assignment. The deadline passed, and in December 2025 DJI landed on the FCC’s Covered List automatically.
That list names companies the government considers an unacceptable national security risk. Once a company is on it, the FCC stops authorizing its new equipment for import, marketing or sale.
What does the FCC want to do?
Gear approved before the listing has kept selling. The FCC now says it has the discretion to shut that down as well, arguing it can prohibit whole categories of covered equipment when doing so serves the public interest. The agency laid out the position in a fact sheet titled “FCC Takes Action to Secure the Drone Supply Chain.”
Consultation
The Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology issued a Public Notice asking for comment. The question on the table is whether the FCC should block the import, marketing or sale of certain military-grade foreign-made drones and critical components already on the Covered List. In the notice, the agency tentatively concluded that strong national security reasons support doing exactly that. Comments are open for 30 days.
What would be banned?
The fact sheet lists the drone categories the government flags as having military capability or carrying particular security risk:
- Swarming drones
- Drones designed to integrate defense articles
- Thermal imaging drones
- Drones with LiDAR sensing
- Aerosol drones capable of dispensing “economic poison” under FAA rules
- Drone docking stations
- Drones weighing 55 lbs. or more
What has DJI said?
DJI has been pushing the issue hard on its @djiglobal Instagram account. It also published a post on its Viewpoints blog walking users through the proposal and asking them to respond. The company argues the ban would hit drones flown by first responders, farmers and small businesses. Consumer models could get caught up in it too, since many use LiDAR for positioning and obstacle avoidance.
What next?
DJI wants U.S. pilots to file comments describing how they actually use their drones and what a ban would cost them. The company is specifically asking people to address whether affordable, comparable alternatives exist.
That request looks like a direct response to a line in the FCC fact sheet. Alongside the security argument, the agency noted that more than $4 billion has moved to U.S.-based drone and component manufacturers since the restrictions took effect, creating thousands of jobs.
What we think
History does not favor DJI here. The company campaigned hard last year to get the required audit performed, and nothing happened. The FCC showed then that it was comfortable proceeding without hearing from U.S. drone operators.
The $4 billion figure is the part worth sitting with. An agency citing domestic industry growth in a national security filing has told you something about what it’s weighing. Whether that’s a bonus outcome or a motivating one, only the FCC knows. Either way, a 30-day comment window seems unlikely to reverse the direction of travel.
File a comment anyway if you fly a DJI aircraft. The record matters even when the outcome looks decided, and a thin comment docket is its own kind of answer.
