What still flies
out of a US box.
And what quietly does not.
Drones sit under an earlier and wider rule than ground robots. Since 22 December 2025 no foreign-produced aircraft can get a new US authorization at all. Here is the board, with the dates that matter and the three regimes everyone keeps mixing up.
Three rules, and
only one of them
is about legality.
Most of what is said about drone bans collapses three separate regimes into one sentence. They point in different directions and they bind different people.
FCC equipment authorization
Decides whether a radio device may be imported, marketed, or sold at all. This is the only one of the three that can make a reseller a lawbreaker. Marketing an aircraft without a valid authorization is a violation no matter who the buyer is.
NDAA and state procurement law
Decides who may buy with government funds. A private buyer in Florida may lawfully own a Chinese drone. The Florida sheriff's office may not buy one. Confusing these two costs a sale and, worse, costs trust.
Section 232 tariffs
Decides what an import costs, not whether it is lawful. A margin problem. It arrives on 3 September 2026 at 25 percent for most aircraft and 100 percent for the heavy and thermal categories.
The sentence to never say. A Chinese drone is not illegal to own. Telling a customer it is will lose you the sale to whoever tells them the truth. What is true is narrower and more useful: no new foreign-produced aircraft can be authorized, existing authorized stock is lawful but finite, and public agencies in a growing number of states cannot spend public money on it.
Dates that change
what a drone costs
or whether it sells.
The FCC has proposed pulling import and marketing rights from foreign drones it already authorized, if they qualify as military grade. The definition includes any aircraft carrying a thermal sensor or a LiDAR sensor, any docking station, and anything over 55 lb. If adopted, sales stop 180 days after the final rule. Comments close on this date.
100 percent on drones over 25 kg, thermal imaging aircraft, docking stations and named critical components. 25 percent on consumer and commercial drones at or under 25 kg. Country caps of 15 percent apply to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland and the EU, and 10 percent to the UK, on importer certification. A 180-day grace applies to aircraft on the Blue UAS Cleared List or the FCC conditional approval list as of 2 September.
A further 25 percent reaches additional UAS components, deferred to give supply chains time to move.
The exemptions that keep Blue UAS listed aircraft and Buy American qualifying builds sellable were extended to this date on 21 July 2026. Conditional approvals granted by the Department of War no longer carry a termination date.
35 lines, 27 makers,
one question each.
Cleared aircraft first, because those are the ones with a supply line that refills. Legacy stock next. Closed lines last, named on purpose so nobody wastes a month chasing them.
Added to the Blue UAS Cleared List in July 2026 together with the R10 and the X10 dock. Sold through an authorized reseller program with published terms, which is the cleanest dealer path in this whole category.
Defense variant, cleared for US military and allied use. Army awarded roughly 52 million dollars across 2,500 plus units.
Indoor inspection platform. The lowest priced Blue UAS cleared aircraft we found, and the closest thing to an affordable American drone that exists.
Blue UAS Select. Freefly publishes an actual price list and runs a reseller intake, which is rare in this segment.
Heavy lift cinema and industrial platform. One of the earliest Blue listings still current.
States that its aircraft are engineered, assembled and supported in the United States. Also carries Green UAS certification for commercial buyers.
Larger payload sibling to the IF800. Same US build and support position.
Compact reconnaissance platform. Vantage publishes a labelled sales line, which most makers in this class do not.
Newer Blue UAS Select listing from the same maker.
Night-capable small UAS. Red Cat also owns FlightWave, so Teal, FlightWave and Red Cat are one counterparty, not three.
FPV strike trainer lineage. Defense channel, expect end-user qualification before pricing.
Vertical takeoff fixed wing. Acquired by Red Cat in September 2024.
Coaxial cylindrical airframe built for weather. Now part of Robinson Helicopter, so contact records carrying the old domain need updating.
Tethered persistent aircraft. Publishes CAGE and DUNS codes on its own site, which speeds federal paperwork.
One of the most recent additions to the cleared list. Designed and assembled at a US headquarters per the maker.
Autonomous monitoring systems including docked variants. Note that any docking station is inside the scope of the proposed retroactive marketing ban.
High rate FPV production. Defense channel only in practice.
Ruggedized squad-level aircraft. No sales channel is published; expect qualification first.
US built with in-house battery assembly and a new Seattle factory as of March 2026, and NDAA compliant by vendor disclosure. We could not confirm a Blue UAS Cleared listing, so any agency sale that specifically requires Blue clearance needs written confirmation from BRINC first.
Long range linear inspection. Compliance rests on NDAA vendor disclosure rather than a Blue listing, which is a weaker basis. Worth knowing before quoting an agency.
French built, Blue UAS cleared since 2022, exempt through 1 January 2028. Parrot has exited consumer entirely, so this line is its whole business now.
Mapping VTOL sold through a published distributor network of over one hundred partners. Swiss origin also earns the 15 percent tariff cap rather than the full rate.
Newer cleared listing from the same maker. Same distributor route.
The US built Vector is Blue UAS Select. The German built Trinity Pro rides on NDAA vendor disclosure instead, which is a different and weaker basis, so confirm which airframe a quote refers to.
senseFly lineage fixed wing mapping aircraft. The company now trades as EagleNXT, so older contact records are stale.
Nano reconnaissance aircraft. Thermal payload puts it squarely inside the proposed military grade marketing ban if that rule is adopted as drafted.
Lawful to sell from stock authorized before the cutoff. Not restockable: no new authorizations, and CBP has detained DJI shipments under the forced labor presumption since October 2024. The Mini 5 Pro, Air 3S and Neo 2 are named in reporting as exposed to the LiDAR prong of the proposed retroactive ban. Treat this inventory as a wasting asset with a real clock on it.
Still in the dealer channel from pre-cutoff stock. These are thermal aircraft, so they sit inside the proposed military grade marketing ban and face the 100 percent tariff annex from 3 September 2026. Autel exited consumer in July 2025.
The most active non-DJI consumer camera drone line still sellable in the US. Publishes a real wholesale channel. Note that the newer Atom 3 is blocked and cannot be sold here.
Self-flying camera line, still sellable from authorized stock. The newer Aqua and VERSA are blocked. The VERSA episode is worth reading: an authorization briefly appeared in the FCC database, the FCC confirmed it had been granted in error, set it aside, and ordered a stop, after a crowdfunding campaign had already taken money.
Launched eighteen days before the cutoff and got authorized in time. Currently the most interesting non-DJI prosumer aircraft that is lawfully sellable here.
Cannot be sold in the United States. The maker says it is pursuing FCC certification, but no foreign UAS has been approved through that route since the cutoff.
Aqua launched in more than fifty countries in May 2026 with the US excluded. VERSA had an authorization set aside by the FCC as erroneously granted.
Do not touch this inventory. The entire line was discontinued in February 2026, the Texas Attorney General sued the company days later over alleged concealed Chinese ties, and August 2026 reporting indicates the FCC is preparing to ban the aircraft over the DJI licensing arrangement.
The cautionary precedent. Authorizations granted in April 2026 were revoked outright in August after the named Texas assembler denied any relationship and RF testing turned out to have been done in Shenzhen. This is why we ask for a factory address, a verifiable contract assembler, and the location of RF testing before we quote anything.
The honest answer to the question everyone asks first. There is no affordable non-Chinese consumer drone. That segment is entirely Chinese as of today. Skydio left consumer in 2023, Parrot left it entirely, Autel left it in July 2025, and nothing replaced them. American production starts around six thousand dollars and realistically at fifteen thousand for a flying camera. Anyone telling a customer otherwise is selling something.
Lawful to sell
is not the same as
lawful to fly.
The FAA does not license drone retailers. It does decide whether the thing we sold can legally leave the ground, which is what the customer actually wanted. We check this before a model goes on the site, not after a complaint.
Remote ID is not optional
Almost everything sold has to be a standard Remote ID aircraft under 14 CFR Part 89, or fly with an approved broadcast module. If an aircraft over 250 grams is not on the FAA list of accepted declarations of compliance, the buyer cannot lawfully fly it outside a recognized identification area. We check that before listing, not after.
The 250 gram line is measured with the battery in
Buyers assume a 249 gram airframe escapes registration. It does not, because the threshold applies to takeoff weight. A popular sub-250 model can weigh closer to 290 grams ready to fly, which puts it into registration and Remote ID.
Commercial flying registers everything
The sub-250 gram registration exemption is a recreational exemption. Anyone flying under Part 107 registers every aircraft regardless of weight.
Beyond visual line of sight is still a waiver
The proposed Part 108 rule has not been finalized. Long range operations still run on Part 107 waivers today, which shapes what an enterprise buyer can actually do with an aircraft after they buy it.
FCC Public Notice DA 25-1086, 22 December 2025
All foreign-produced uncrewed aircraft systems, and a defined list of UAS critical components including flight controllers, data links, ground control stations, cameras, batteries and motors, were added to the FCC Covered List. No foreign-produced UAS can receive a new equipment authorization. Models authorized on or before that date remain lawful to import, sell and use.
All products above belong to their makers. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized dealer for any of them unless a separate agreement says so in writing. Nothing here is legal advice. Regulatory status reflects public records on the compiled date and changes fast in this category, including by revocation of grants that were valid the week before. Confirm any FCC ID yourself in the official FCC equipment authorization search, and confirm Blue UAS status at the Defense Contract Management Agency listing, before you rely on either.
Need an aircraft
an agency can buy?
Tell us who the end user is and what they need to see from the air. We will quote from cleared production, state the duty separately, and put the compliance record in writing before you commit a budget line.