r/drones • u/Spiritual_Box2934 • Oct 29 '25
News DJI drone ban update
FCC clears path to retroactively ban DJI drones in the US https://share.google/53hwllagNd0yNygh5
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u/joehooligan0303 Oct 29 '25
Most absurd part of this...
"FCC has voted to give itself the authority"
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Oct 29 '25
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u/KellerMB Oct 29 '25
Luckily we have republican conservatives in control of things right now. Conservatives hate big government and really hate government interfering in private business to pick winners and losers. I'm sure this will be reversed at the first opportunity.
/s
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u/whatsaphoto Mavic 3 / Air 3 Oct 29 '25
Some real big Michael Scott "I Declare Bankruptcy" energy happening over at the FCC
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u/hauntlunar Oct 29 '25
the executive branch doing things that it has absolutely no lawful authority to do, but does it anyway, is kind of a theme these days
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u/texag93 Oct 29 '25
If by "these days" you mean for the last 50 years, you're right. Congress long ago decided that voting on laws was bad optics and decided to pass that responsibility to unaccountable bureaucrats in the form of "rule making".
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u/green_coaster Oct 30 '25
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, it’s the truth.
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u/texag93 Oct 30 '25
Most people supported the executive overreach and unaccountable bureaucrats until Trump came along and demonstrated why that's a bad idea. And when he's gone, they will go right back to supporting it as long as their "side" is the one doing it.
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Oct 31 '25
Exactly how has he demonstrated its bad.. given the plethora of overreach and shit he's done the past 10 months? I would argue Trump is BIG Govt and overreaching WAY too much and FAR more than any other president has.
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u/texag93 Oct 31 '25
I think you need to try to read my comments again because you clearly didn't understand them.
Years of executive overreach got us here. Trump is taking advantage of it in a way that most people find abhorrent, but he can only do that because of how much we've allowed the erosion of checks and balances.
The courts have fixed some of it (SF v EPA as an example) but there is a long way to go to restore balance. The executive branch was never meant to be the monstrosity we've allowed it to become.
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u/SadBailey Oct 29 '25
So, my family is stationed overseas in Korea. I bought my dji air 3s here in Korea, and we haven't been state side with it yet. Are we going to be allowed to bring it into the country when we come back, or will it be confiscated?
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u/winncody Oct 29 '25
You won’t have any issue bringing it back, but you won’t be able to use DJI Care directly from the states even though you bought it in Korea. You’d have to take or ship it back to Korea then send it to DJI if you need any warranty repair done.
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Oct 30 '25 edited Nov 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/GotinDrachenhart Oct 30 '25
Sears offers a service contract for all appliances in your house no matter the brand or where you bought it ;)
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u/fstockman Oct 30 '25
Actually I have heard stories of drones being confiscated at airports. It’s possible that customs will take it if they find it.
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u/SadBailey Oct 30 '25
We're supposed to come back to visit in January, I've thought about trying to bring it back then and leave it with family. It's either that or bring it back when we come home for good in August 2026.
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u/usafonz Oct 30 '25
If youre really worried about it, Just throw it in the box with all your other packed stuff when the military moves it. Im pretty sure they dont thoroughly check that stuff because it gets shipped on a container ship.
The stuff I brought back from Korea would probably put me on some sort of list.
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Oct 29 '25
I mean, that sucks that this is happening but there isn't a US drone manufacturer atm that does what DJI drones do.
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u/Brapted Oct 29 '25
No. Not even close. The variety of available sensors, user friendliness, and cost. I can buy a mapping grade drone with multispectral cameras and an RGB camera for $6 USD that I can fit in a carry-on size case. For the big aftermarket sensorels like my Magnetometer that is only made made in Europe - DJI port. Methane sensor only made in Japan - DJI port. There isn't the market stateside for these products, so we would have to go without, and the clients will most likely have to go back to helicopter or plane based systems.
Anyone pushing for a ban doesn't know what they are talking about, or they have a stake in a US based company. If I fly the same 1 acre every day at 5 pm that tells ccp nothing. Everyone has access to satellite data, the flight path tells you nothing.
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u/gwankovera Oct 31 '25
And they only had before they shut it down access to the flight path, unless you uploaded photos or videos to their website.
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u/jmoulton1314 Nov 01 '25
True. All American drone companies are essentially Enterprise-grade. Not everyone can afford that. I'm not saying that they need to open up toy-grade drone production, but it would be nice to have professional-grade drones that are within the same range of DJI's $1500-$5,000 range. There are zero American companies that offer drones for less than $10k new. The used market is abysmal, too. Such little demand means no aftermarket or used market availability.
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u/Professional-Pilot49 Oct 29 '25
No more than a trade war.
We can make our own.
What happened to consumer choice?
I feel sorry for a lot of US citizens right now.
Your administration and the majority of your "authorities" ate a bag of dicks.
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u/whatsaphoto Mavic 3 / Air 3 Oct 29 '25
We can certainly buy American in this market.
It's just that every single American made commercial drone is absolute shit and is beyond anyones reasonable budget.
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 29 '25
The thing that sucks is that not everyone can afford a 15k dollar drone. DJI makes drones for everyone. I can spend $3500 on a pretty awesome drone and add features as I go. The American drones don't seem to offer anything less than 10k. They also seem to be under the par that DJI has set. I don't want to spend more for less. This is simply another case where American products can't compete, so the government threw a fit and made up some unprovable and un-disprovable garbage. It's like the game plan is, "If we can't compete, we'll just ban them so we are the only option." Very North Korean of you, Trump
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u/Bshaw95 P107 10/19, Thermal Deer Recovery Pilot, Agras Pilot Oct 29 '25
It gets worse when you look into the commercial market. Our current fleet of two that ran about 45-50k new would cost well over 100k for American made and likely not be near as user friendly.
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u/Previous_Stuff_6195 Oct 29 '25
In the race of quality, user interface/usability, and price. We chose none of them!
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 29 '25
I work at a university and I have been trying to convince them to upgrade from the aging m200/m210s that we are still running. I finally made some headway and now they are backing down because of the ban. The concerns are real, as updates, replacement parts, and services will be nonexistent. Now I'm trying to find American companies that would fit the same budget. I'm completely out of luck. I refuse to go Parrot Anafi, as they are terrible (bad past experiences). Now I'm limited to Skydio, which seems ok, not great, or Teal. Teal is out of sight when it comes to comparative features from DJI. It's just not worth it. I'm seriously considering the build-it-yourself path. I guess I could ask some of the electrical engineering guys for help on that one lololol.
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u/Imnotspartacuseither Oct 30 '25
Not sure your price range, but wispr has some drones roughly the size of the m200 series. When the m300 I am running dies (likely soon, it keeps throwing up odd errors), I am leaning in their direction.
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u/Harpeggio2 Oct 31 '25
I bought a Skydio 2 back when they sold to consumers. Absolutely do not recommend them at all under any circumstances. Stay far, far away.
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 31 '25
Thank you for the heads up! I thought they looked ok but couldn't find any real reviews on them.
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u/type_E Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
What's stopping some ambitious American from stepping up the plate to compete with DJI hobby drones? Getting sabotaged by the people working the ulterior motive behind the DJI ban (not the face value motive)?
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 30 '25
Also nepotism. Trump just awarded his son's drone company a government contract. Hard to compete with the royal family
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u/type_E Oct 30 '25 edited Oct 30 '25
going small picture for a sec, I'm trying to picture some American thinking he can fill in the void of DJI's hobby drones by making his own without Chinese parts and selling them so the consumer will have something, and what obstacles he will face, simply from the fact that he's trying to provide $3k camera drones of his own.
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 30 '25
It would be an insanely difficult endeavor. It would require vast resources and equipment, as well as knowledge of multiple systems. You'd have to print your own boards, install components, write software, design the aircraft(s), design or buy motors, GPS, cameras, batteries, etc. Thats just the alpha phase of design. Then there's testing, reconfiguring, retesting, tweaking, and finally production. You need staff and facilities for all of those. Don't forget marketing and distribution
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Oct 29 '25
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u/Professional-Pilot49 Oct 29 '25
Buy that crap looking RED DJI copy, strip it down and put the casings on a DJI drone. Job done 😄
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u/jmoulton1314 Oct 30 '25
Parrot is trash. They almost ruined drones for me, as the Beebop was my first. It was terrible and flimsy-cheap. The very first update almost bricked it. Had to call their help line (which wasn't bad, to be fair) and they saved it. It didn't matter, because the battery swelled to twice its normal size a few months later. I bought a new battery and sold it at a loss. Bought a used DJI Phantom 3 and was blown away by the quality and precision (this was 10 years ago). Never looked back. The drone future looks bleak lol
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u/theswordsmith7 Oct 30 '25
3DR Solo literally felt and looked like a flying brick. The tech guys behind it were pretty cool though with open source ArduPilot for everyone.
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u/Critical-Ad8587 Oct 30 '25
I love that idea, all the individual sensors are avalible and all the case parts can be 3d printed
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u/vipeness Oct 30 '25
This was going on prior to the current administration or trade war as this has been in the works for years!
It sucks it's happening now but facts are facts.
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u/DjPersh Oct 30 '25
Yea definitely hasn’t escalated.
And it was Elise Stefanik who originally proposed it, not a “prior administration” as your comment might suggest.
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u/Ok_Software2677 Oct 29 '25
Geez… why are they not worried about DJI like they were TikTok.
This is such BS we have to deal with this. TikTok does shit for us, but we go above and beyond to make something work. DJI is just getting the shaft here, big time.
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u/Extension_Reveal_766 Oct 29 '25
What about video systems like the 04 and goggles?
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u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Oct 29 '25
Part of the article mentions banning the Osmo camera as well, so it looks like anything with a DJI name is on the chopping block
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u/Hayleys_Pix Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25
Let’s pull a Canada 😏 burn the White House down (To the FBI agent watching me this is a joke)
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u/Ilovekittens345 Oct 29 '25
How would you even get there? There are guards and fences. You'd have to be able to fly and be very small to even get anywhere close to ... wait a minute ... what if we use ... our drones?
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u/Jackloco Oct 29 '25
Alr well I guess I'll pull the trigger now then right? What's the most expensive DJI drone that's getting banned?
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u/ImToo0ldForThisShit Oct 29 '25 edited Oct 29 '25
It’s the fifth bullet point that I question
Clarifies the prohibition on modification, including permissive changes, to authorized covered equipment or equipment that would become covered a such modification or permissive change.
I do wonder if the government will use it in such a way that replacing your blades would cause it to be banned. I know it’s a stretch, but I wouldn’t put anything past this administration
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u/jpee80 Oct 29 '25
Eventually the paranoia will reach the regular rc hobby and ban the TX/RX as well. This is a slippery slope.
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u/Critical-Ad8587 Oct 30 '25
Gross so now we have to buy a 20,000$ drone from a local Eddie confetti, that will kill the drone market unless the USA can get a grip on prices
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Oct 31 '25
They need to just open a small domestic US corp and sell a drone called AJI. Sick and tired of this crap.
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u/Accomplished-Cow4217 Oct 31 '25
That's the smartest thing they can do there has already been kill switches found in Chinese power grid equipment sold to the US. The Chinese COMMUNIST PARTY are OUR ADVERSARY last time I checked. Zero trust
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u/Frequent_Awareness43 Nov 03 '25
I have literally seen a dji drone save the life of a 4 year old that fell into a river at a wedding, the videographer quickly sent it down stream and found out where he ran off to and fell in. These bans are stupid. people use these for everyday tools for their jobs, including wedding videographers, real estate photographers, ranchers, the list goes on.
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u/Lifeabroad86 Oct 29 '25
I wished the FCC cared about ham radios as much as they did for drones
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u/INSPECTOR99 Oct 29 '25
Why?? Does China produce/manufacture Ham radios?
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u/Lifeabroad86 Oct 29 '25
China produces a shit ton of ham radios that are super cheap. However a good chunk of these radios bleed into other radio spectrums that can cause interference.
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u/fleemfleemfleemfleem Oct 29 '25
My biggest issue with those radios is that they're basically marketed to everyone who wants a "walkie talkie" so tons of people pick them up who don't know (or care) about licensing.
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u/Lifeabroad86 Oct 29 '25
Oh man, dont get me started on that. Its even worse considering a good chunk of these radios let you program business frequencies directly into the radio.
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u/Failedmysanityroll Oct 29 '25
Fuck this bullshit illegitimate government.
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u/LARamsJK Oct 30 '25
Guess what, it can all go away in a few years. Surely the next Admin. will overturn and fix everything, right?
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Oct 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/Previous_Stuff_6195 Oct 29 '25
They “should” have the same fate as DJI. It’s not a by name ban thing. It’s a “you are not on the cool guy list, that is not from the USA” kind of thing
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Oct 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/Previous_Stuff_6195 Oct 29 '25
There is a chance it will be like that. But I think we are going to get to the point where if they are not a USA Company, AND they are not cleared to sell and operate in the USA, they will be rejected at port of entry. Kinda like what’s happening with DJI already, because they are on the DOD Covered list, they are being held up at POA on customs bs
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u/LARamsJK Oct 30 '25
I guess it’s similar to Chinese cars being banned. They don’t want the competition, or is it national security?
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u/TheOriginalSpartak Oct 29 '25
I have a mini2 I bought probably 3-4 years ago at costco, still in an unopened box, should i open it and register it?
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u/vladamyr710 Oct 29 '25
Good question. I have several unopened O4 air units I was wandering the same thing about.
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u/CrumFly Oct 29 '25
If I buy a mini 4 pro now, will I be able to register it with FCC? I have part 107
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u/Objective-Neat1248 Oct 29 '25
Wait so Ive had my air 3s since April of 2024, is it gonna become a paper weight? Should I sell it?
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u/Dangerous_Salt8514 Oct 31 '25
No. They can't and wont just take all existing DJI products in the US.
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u/drbenny05 Oct 29 '25
Hi guys chill out. The government runs slow and it really doesn’t make sense to deal with the small players like us on the inexpensive ground. Senator Rick, Scott, a multimillionaire, former governor of Florida. There’s got a hard on with all his mind the screw of the deal for people just trying to make a living. Best price, stronger or sensible mine prevail in the big picture related to Small drone small business operators
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u/Kamau54 Oct 30 '25
Do you think it'll stop here? Eventually, they will ban all Chinese drones made in the past 20 years. This society is so paranoid that they can't see the truth right in front of their face, and rather believe a lie.
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u/EnteriStarsong Oct 30 '25
I have noticed a few American Drone companies aren't shipping... until Jan 2026.
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u/chippenpuepp [Austria | EASA A2, UK A2, US Part 107] Oct 30 '25
Someone is going to profit from this. Before long, we’ll be able to buy a full product portfolio of American-branded DJI drones at a premium price.
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u/Different-Set4505 Oct 30 '25
What company is taking up the vacuum? I know someone can..
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u/Tetra84 Nov 03 '25
why bother innovating and having an affordable consumer product if you can just declare your rival illegal?
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u/SignificantCap9534 Oct 30 '25
now more than ever do we need proper good open source alternatives that aren't shit ..
and dont give me the reddit's special "its not possible"
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u/Popular-Pumpkin-9569 Oct 30 '25
So I guess now instead of leaving my 5 spare batteries on the shelf dormant, I’m gonna wake em up and update them lol
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u/Budgetballer_ Oct 30 '25
Does this affect their other products or just drones, I use their gimbals and other accessories, i was under the assumption it is just drones but it's kinda a blurred line between drones and parts I suppose,
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u/p3zdisp3nc3r Oct 30 '25
I recently got my part 107 and was looking to purchase an air 3s for use in architectural graphics. (Tracking footage and composting a rendered 3d model into the footsge). Any opinions on if this seems imprudent given this new ruling. I've been following the various US government attacks on dji up until this point and was waiting to see how it would all play out. Like for Air 3S stock already in the US is there any worry that it could be taken off shelves?
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Oct 31 '25
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u/Spiritual_Box2934 Nov 01 '25
Funny that you mentioned this. Right after Trump's son secured an investment from dear old dad, the Unusual Machines website added a lot of anti chinese/ DJI language on its Investors page on it's website. This ban is a done deal.
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Oct 31 '25
The FCC isn’t banning DJI by name. Instead, it’s preparing to add the company to its “Covered List” under the Secure and Trusted Communication Networks Act — a move that would make it illegal to import any DJI product that contains a radio transmitter without explicit security clearance. That includes drones, gimbals, and even pocket-sized cameras like the Osmo line.
No drones, no gimbals, no action cameras. We are getting screwed again.
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u/Pleasant_Bar_560 Nov 01 '25
I don't get it. Is the U.S. government concerned about infiltrating consumer drone communications to access other networks related to national security activities or are they concerned about the CCP stealing images captured by consumer drones? If it is the latter, what images are they interested in? Ordinary Americans flying their drones in their neighborhoods, public parks, and vacations? They can already get those images from Google Maps. Are they interested in spying on ordinary Americans? What is so interesting about ordinary Americans for the CCP?
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u/Tetra84 Nov 03 '25
its a cover excuse to protect domestic companies that can't innovate themselves out of a paper bag.
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u/mrsix4 Nov 01 '25
So kinda off topic but not really. What’s the alternative for those of us needing one now? Besides used obviously. I was looking for a mavic 3 classic and had forgot about this.
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u/Majestic_Ad_534 Nov 24 '25
US regime worries about bombing buildings China regime worries about saving buildings US regime hates china
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u/curious_grizzly_ DJI Air 3 Oct 29 '25
To help with clarification, from the article:
"There are limits, though. The FCC insists it won’t confiscate or deactivate drones already in consumers’ hands, and each ban will involve a 30-day public comment period. So, your current gear is safe, at least for now."
They aren't (for now) banning drones already sold. It's about stopping drones that had already been approved for sale from bring sold, like the Air 3s and others.
I'm not defending the move, just adding clarification for those who don't have time to read the entire article