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ConcludedMarketRule watch2 min read

The FCC's 26-189 drone comment window closed with 3,847 filings on the record

The final days brought a wave of individual pilots, small survey and ag operators, and Taranis. The FCC denied every extension request, so what was filed by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on September 2 is the record.

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What changed: Updated September 7, 2026: the FCC docket page reports a final total of 3,847 filings. Two earlier figures in this report were low. The first, more than 250, was the maximum a single ECFS API page returns. The second, at least 2,250, was as far as a walk of that API got before the rate limit stopped it. The docket page is the authoritative count. Status changed from Comment open to Concluded on September 3.

Drone payloads and sensors laid out on a bench, the thermal and LiDAR hardware the 26-189 proposal defines as military-grade
Drone payloads and sensors laid out on a bench, the thermal and LiDAR hardware the 26-189 proposal defines as military-grade.

Decision brief

The filing window is closed. If a thermal camera, a dock, a spray platform, or a LiDAR payload is part of how you work, the useful move now is a reply comment answering what others put on the record. Nothing about the proposal grounds equipment you already own; the fight is over what can be imported and sold next.

Window closed
Sept 2, 11:59 p.m. ET

Extension requests denied in DA 26-892

Filings on record
3,847

3,173 express and 674 standard, per the FCC docket page

Proceeding
PS Docket 26-189

Public Notice DA 26-758, released July 21, 2026

The record

Individuals and small operators filled a docket of 3,847 filings.

Comments on PS Docket 26-189 closed at 11:59 p.m. Eastern on September 2, thirty days after the Federal Register published the FCC's notice on August 3. The FCC denied the requests to extend that date in Order DA 26-892 on August 28. The FCC's docket page reports 3,847 total filings for the proceeding, split into 3,173 express filings and 674 standard filings. Earlier versions of this report gave lower figures because they counted through the FCC's public API, which returns 250 results per page and rate-limits a full walk.

The filings are overwhelmingly express comments from individual pilots, with a scattering of companies among them: Taranis, the agricultural-analytics operator; Minister and Glaeser Surveying; Industrial Aerobotics; Mitchell Consulting Group; and several separate filings from staff at HLE Drones. The volume arrived late: 62 filings were disseminated on September 2 and 188 more on September 3, after the window shut, which is normal for ECFS processing. That profile matches who the proposal reaches. Public Notice DA 26-758 defines military-grade by capability rather than brand, and thermal sensors, docking stations, spray systems, and LiDAR are the capabilities that small commercial fleets actually run.

What is actually proposed

Import and marketing, not flight. Capability, not brand.

The proposal is not a grounding order and never was. The notice says continued use and operation of already-purchased equipment would stay authorized. What it would end is future importation and marketing, which the FCC defines to include advertising, distribution, sale, and lease, of previously authorized foreign-produced equipment that meets the capability definitions, with carve-outs for domestically produced equipment, Blue UAS Cleared List hardware, and Buy American domestic end products. This is a separate proceeding from PS Docket 26-184, which names nine company groups.

What to do

The window is shut. A reply comment is the remaining input.

What happens next is a reply-comment window and then FCC deliberation with no statutory deadline. Reply comments answer what others filed; a specific reply from an operator whose fleet is named in the record carries more weight than a general objection. Drone Authority has since reported the final count and the substance of the major submissions, including DJI's own filing.

Is my drone affected?Pick the aircraft and read what is final, what is proposed, and what it means for owning or buying it.Our report on the proposal itselfThe seven capability categories, the exemptions, and how to file.

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