FCC Adds Foreign-Produced Unmanned Aircraft Systems to Covered List

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission added foreign-produced uncrewed aircraft systems and specified critical components to its Covered List on December 22, 2025. The public notice followed a national-security determination made by an executive-branch interagency body.

The FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau maintains the list under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks framework. The December action also addressed communications and video-surveillance equipment and services identified in Section 1709 of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Its coverage is therefore defined by the notice and the referenced categories.

For affected equipment, the Covered List is part of the FCC's equipment-authorization framework. The decision concerns whether specified products can obtain the required authorization; it is not a general technical assessment of every automated machine. The aircraft and component definitions are necessary to understand which devices fall within the announced action.

Cleaning-industry readers should keep this December UAS development separate from measures addressing other robotics categories. A drone's treatment does not by itself establish the status of a household vacuum or pool cleaner. Later notices and individual authorization records provide the relevant evidence for those products, rather than extending the aircraft measure beyond its stated scope.