Things just went from bad to worse for the hobby-grade drone industry in the U.S. For all the building tension this past year over whether the American government would actually ban top drone brand DJI, not only did the ban pass on December 23, 2025, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) drastically expanded the list of banned drones. Now every foreign-made drone is on the FCC’s “Covered List.” You know, the ban list. The law is now in effect, and nearly every drone brand faces a slow exile from the American market.
Our Favorite Drones You Can Buy (For Now)
The Backstory
One could say that the climax came as a whimper, since the U.S. government quite literally ghosted the company and failed to follow through on its own provision to review DJI. But one could also say the decision came as a loud bang, since the effect on the consumer drone market in the U.S. will be profound.
The showdown had been a long time coming. For seven years Congress has dithered over whether the Chinese company was subject to interference from and control by the Chinese government, and whether such suspected control posed a risk to American customers’ data. And then on December 23, 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act. It included an amendment requesting a review from an “appropriate national security agency” to prove that DJI doesn’t share user data from American drones with the Chinese government, giving the company one year to submit to and pass the review.
DJI responded publicly that month that they had nothing to hide, and subsequently spent a year trying to convince the U.S. government to begin the audit. But no federal agency even began. As the clock ticked down toward December 23, 2025, when the reprieve would expire and the law’s enforcement would begin automatically, we wondered what the government’s silence actually meant. Would the U.S. just extend the deadline again, as it had repeatedly over the course of 2025 with the looming TikTok ban? Or would the U.S. just ignore the enforcement? Both seemed more likely than exiling arguably the best drone maker from such a large market. Few guessed that the U.S. would make it even more severe than the last year had teased.
It Affects the Whole Industry, Not Just DJI
By the time you read this, the new regulations will be in effect. They became law on December 21. The FCC won’t grant the authorization required to operate within the U.S. to any newly introduced model of drone if it’s manufactured outside the U.S. Existing models on the market that have already received FCC authorization can still operate in the U.S.
That means that you can buy the DJI Mavic Pro 4, since it received FCC authorization before the ban. But the inevitable DJI Mavic Pro 5 won’t be coming to the U.S. Neither with any future model that DJI introduces to the rest of the world. And if you figure you’ll just switch allegiances to another brand, think again. All the most recommended drone brands are now covered by the ban, too, since they’re all made outside of the U.S. That’s thanks to language introduced last year in the Executive Branch National Security Determination, which drastically expanded the list of banned drones beyond the original scope of DJI and Autel.
Merely being sold by a U.S.-based company isn’t enough to evade the ban. Neither is building the drone on American soil. Even if the drone itself is assembled in the U.S., it’ll be similarly banned if it has certain foreign-made components, such as batteries, motors, flight controllers, sensors, and more.
American brands have largely retreated from offering hobby-grade drones to consumers. They focus on commercial customers and government agencies, with correspondingly high price tags to match. So where does that leave us?
In short: with whatever existing drone models are already sold on the U.S. market. That’ll suffice for a little while. But as the rest of the consumer drone industry moves on to newer, more advanced models that we won’t get here in the States, and as the older stock dries up, goes out of production, and loses factory support, American consumers will be left behind the rest of the world, stuck in a sort of windowed time capsule.
The Upshot
If you're in the market for a new drone, our advice to you is the same as it was in October: Buy it now. We can't predict whether the current stock will last forever or whether the government will revisit its decision. And with no American-made drones comparable to the category leaders, it’ll be a while before any company steps up to offer one. If they do at all.
Matt Jancer has been in the industry for 15 years and lives in his favorite urban death maze, New York City. He’s traded words for money on behalf of more than 15 magazines. Some of his longest-running bylines were spent covering cars, motorcycles, outdoors gear, health and fitness for Car and Driver, Outside, Esquire, Smithsonian, Playboy and Wired. When he’s not writing about motorcycles and our place in the wilderness for a living, he’s writing for enjoyment, riding his motorcycle, and mountain climbing out West. He believes everyone needs at least one hobby they have none of their ego invested into, and so guitar noises and cooking smells have been known to emanate from his apartment. Oh yeah, and he thinks pigeons are way underrated.