In New Executive Orders, President Trump Emphasizes American Drone Dominance

• President Trump issued two new executive orders on June 6 to promote domestic drone manufacturing and deployment and to protect national security interests as they relate to drone usage.
• The executive orders seek to advance drone-specific rulemakings and establish new research and testing initiatives intended to pave the way for future rulemakings on emerging drone technologies.

Background

On June 6, President Donald J. Trump issued two executive orders addressing the capabilities of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or drones). The first, titled “Unleashing American Drone Dominance,” directs agencies to “accelerate the safe commercialization of drone technologies and fully integrate UAS into the National Airspace System,” with an emphasis on promoting American-manufactured UAS technologies. The second, titled “Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty,” discusses potential threats posed by malicious actors using UAS technology and provides directives to agencies to take actions that protect American airspace and critical infrastructure. Some of you might remember that protecting critical infrastructure from drones was a topic of the 2016 FAA Reauthorization Bill. Those protections were never implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

President Trump also was an advocate for drone technology during his first term, when he signed a Presidential Memorandum to accelerate commercial drone integration and created a UAS Integration Pilot Program to work with state and local governments on drone use. The executive orders also continue the emphasis of the current administration on domestic growth and security by promoting U.S.-manufactured UAS and reviewing the national security implications of foreign-manufactured UAS.

Unleashing American Drone Dominance: A Focus on Domestic Commercialization of UAS

In this executive order, President Trump establishes the following policies:

• Accelerating the safe integration of UAS into the National Airspace System.
• Promoting the domestic commercialization of UAS technologies at scale.
• Strengthening the domestic drone industrial base and increasing exports of American-manufactured UAS.

BVLOS and Civil UAS

To achieve these policies, the executive order directs the Secretary of Transportation to work with the Administrator of the FAA and issue a proposed rule that enables routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for UAS, with an emphasis on commercial and public safety purposes. The executive order further directs the FAA to create “clear metrics for assessing the performance and safety of BVLOS operations” within 30 days of the date of the order and to determine regulatory barriers to BVLOS implementation within 120 days of the order. It also authorizes the FAA to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to review UAS waiver applications, which is intended to streamline the complex review process.

Of note, the FAA recently submitted a notice of proposed rulemaking pertinent to BVLOS operations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. OIRA review is required for the rulemaking to be published in the Federal Register for public comment. The proposed rules, which aim to streamline BVLOS operations with a set of new regulations housed in Part 108 of the FAA’s rules, are highly anticipated by industry members.

The executive order additionally includes language prompting the FAA Administrator to release an updated roadmap, within 240 days of the date of the order, to integrate civil UAS in the National Airspace System. To facilitate this, the order instructs the FAA Administrator to ensure existing FAA UAS Test Ranges are being fully utilized to support UAS testing.

Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing

The executive order also addresses emerging technologies such as electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. In particular, it requires the FAA Administrator to coordinate with the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to create the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) to “accelerate the deployment of safe and lawful eVTOL operations in the United States.” This program is intended to be an extension of the current BEYOND program, which works with select participants on UAS integration testing and data collection.

As part of the eIPP effort, the executive order directs the FAA Administrator to issue within 90 days of the date of the order a public request for proposals from state, local, tribal and territorial governments. The proposals must include a private sector partner that has experience in the eVTOL industry. Following the proposal period, the FAA Administrator is authorized to choose at least five pilot projects that intend to begin operations within 90 days of finalizing the pilot project agreement. The selection criteria for pilot projects will include review of:

• eVTOL technologies that are offered or developed by an American entity.
• Representation of economic or geographic operations and models of public-private partnerships.
• Representation of the operations that will be conducted, such as advanced air mobility (AAM), medical response, cargo transport or rural access.

The proposed eIPP program is currently slated to conclude three years after the date the first pilot project is operational. The FAA will use the operational data collected from the pilot programs to support the development of future regulations.

American Drone Industrial Base, National Security and Exports

The executive order directs federal agencies to prioritize U.S.-manufactured UAS over foreign-manufactured UAS “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The executive order further requires the Federal Acquisition Security Council to issue a Covered Foreign Entity List, pursuant to section 1822(1) of the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, to identify any companies that pose supply chain risks. The list should be published within 30 days of the date of this order.

To promote exports, the executive order authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to work with the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Energy to review and amend export control regulations “to enable the expedited export of United States-manufactured civil UAS to foreign partners,” ensuring that such recipient countries and end users are not classified as foreign adversaries.

Finally, the executive order provides for the Department of Defense to be able to “procure, integrate, and train using low-cost, high-performing drones manufactured in the United States” by updating the Defense Innovation Unit’s Blue UAS List to enable all authorized platforms to operate on military installations or ranges.

Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty: An Emphasis on National Security

In another executive order, President Trump targets the use of UAS for malicious purposes, including by criminals, terrorists and hostile foreign actors. This executive order seeks to protect critical infrastructure, military installations, public mass gatherings and American airspace from the “weaponization” of UAS technologies. The executive order first creates a federal task force titled the Restore American Airspace Sovereignty Task Force. This task force, chaired by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, will assess regulatory, operational and technical frameworks to identify solutions to UAS threats.

The executive order further directs the FAA Administrator to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, pursuant to the statutory requirement from section 2209(f) of the 2016 FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act, which establishes a process to restrict drone flights above fixed site facilities such as critical infrastructure, state prisons, oil refineries and amusement parks. This provision also requires the Administrator to conduct national security and homeland security assessments pursuant to section 2209. A version of this rulemaking also was recently submitted by the FAA to OIRA for review.

Detection, Tracking and Identification

The executive order also directs the Attorney General to work with the FAA Administrator to investigate and enforce applicable laws related to drone operators endangering the public. It authorizes the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to review the grant programs they administer to provide for state, local, tribal and territorial agencies to obtain grant awards to purchase UAS or related equipment/services for detection, tracking or identification of drones and drone signals.

The executive order also addresses federal agency use of equipment to detect, track and identify use of drones and drone signals. Specifically, the executive order directs the Attorney General, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Homeland Security and the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to update the “Advisory on the Application of Federal Laws to the Acquisition and Use of Technology to Detect and Mitigate Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” which was previously released in August 2020. Further, the executive order directs the FAA Administrator, to the extent permitted by law, to automate real-time access to personal identifying information associated with UAS remote identification signals to allow appropriate executive departments and agencies to enforce the law within the parameters of applicable privacy guardrails. The executive order also authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security and the FAA Administrator to provide guidance to critical infrastructure owners or operators to employ technologies to detect, track and identify drones and drone signals.

Defense and Protections

The executive order directs the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Transportation, to conduct a risk-based assessment to determine whether the northern and southern land borders, large airports, federal facilities, critical infrastructure and military installations should be designated as covered facilities, per 6 U.S.C. § 124n and 10 U.S.C. § 130i, both of which discuss protection of certain facilities from unmanned aircraft. Additionally, the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security are directed to research counter-UAS operational responses for the purpose of protecting mass gathering events—with an eye toward the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026 and 2028 Summer Olympics, both of which will be hosted in the United States.

Takeaways

Regulating the UAS industry is a multifaceted challenge, with many regulatory, technical and operational considerations. The broad directives in President Trump’s two executive orders cover both novel opportunities for UAS innovation as well as support for progressing UAS regulation. The executive orders strike a balance between national security and industry growth and development. Industry hopes that the proposed, long-awaited FAA regulations will boost drone industry growth and reduce regulatory barriers to UAS operations.

Akin continues to monitor this space for any updates. Please reach out to our team if you have any questions.