Department of Defense
Every UASFeed story on Department of Defense — across defense, counter-UAS, industry, commercial, policy, and tech, newest first.
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Policy & Regulation
FAA's Critical-Infrastructure Drone-Restriction Rule Closes Its Public Comment Window
The FAA's first formal process letting critical-infrastructure operators petition for drone flight restrictions closed for public comment this week, setting up two new tiers of no-fly zones covering 16 sectors from energy to defense plants.
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Policy & Regulation
Drones as Plumbing: The House's FY27 NDAA Bets on Doctrine, Ranges, and a Common OS
The House's FY27 NDAA (H.R. 8800) pivots from buying more drones to building the scaffolding to run them — a common sUAS operating system, dedicated training corridors, formal autonomy doctrine, and new rules for AI that influences the use of force.
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Policy & Regulation
Hegseth Names a Pentagon 'Drone Czar': New DRPM-UxS to Absorb Almost Every Unmanned Program
A June 29 Hegseth memo creates a Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Unmanned Systems reporting to Deputy Secretary Feinberg, pulling tens of billions in Group 1-3 drones, ground robots and surface vessels under one office — with the Navy's MUSV the notable carve-out.
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Policy & Regulation
The Drone Lobby Storms Capitol Hill: Adversarial-UAS Bans, Counter-UAS Authority, and a $70B FY27 Bet
At AUVSI's June 24 Hill Day, 100+ industry leaders ran 90+ meetings to push procurement bans on adversarial-nation drones, more DHS counter-UAS grants, and permanent Blue/Green UAS pathways — as core DoD C-UAS authority nears its Dec. 31 sunset and FY27 steers $70B+ to drone dominance.
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Policy & Regulation
New Jersey's 2024 Drone Wave: What Federal Investigators Actually Found
In late 2024, weeks of nightly drone sightings across New Jersey and the Northeast triggered a federal investigation, thousands of public tips, and emergency airspace restrictions—before a four-agency joint statement concluded most reports were misidentified manned aircraft, with no foreign nexus and no national security threat.
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Policy & Regulation
Who Can Legally Shoot Down a Drone in the US — and Why the Answer Is Complicated
Federal aircraft law, the Aircraft Sabotage Act, and overlapping wiretapping statutes mean that almost nobody — not state police, not sheriffs, not private citizens — had clear legal authority to neutralize a rogue drone until Congress began carving out narrow exceptions.
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Policy & Regulation
The American Security Drone Act, Explained: What the Federal UAS Ban Actually Covers
The American Security Drone Act of 2023, enacted in the FY2024 NDAA, banned federal procurement and operation of Chinese-made drones — effective December 22, 2025 — extending to every contractor and grant recipient spending federal money, not just agencies.
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Policy & Regulation
The Magnet Problem: How China’s Rare Earth Grip Threatens Every Drone on Earth
China controls 93% of global rare earth magnet manufacturing — the same magnets that spin every brushless motor in every military and commercial drone. When Beijing tightened export controls in 2025, the supply chain risk stopped being theoretical.
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Policy & Regulation
Is DJI Banned in the U.S.? A Precise Map of Six Overlapping Restrictions
"DJI is banned" is both true and false depending on which of six distinct legal instruments you mean. This explainer maps each layer — export controls, federal procurement, the DoD blacklist, the FCC Covered List, state laws, and the BVLOS draft rule — with its exact scope and status as of June 2026.
