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DevelopingPolicyRule watch3 min read

TSA is lining up closed-door security roundtables for Part 108 operators. Requests to sit in are due October 19.

A September 4 Federal Register notice asks BVLOS operators and their associations to apply for technical roundtables on TSA-approved security programs, to be held once the FAA and TSA final rules are published.

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Enterprise drone crew on an inspection job, the kind of operation that would fall under TSA's Part 108 security program
Enterprise drone crew on an inspection job, the kind of operation that would fall under TSA's Part 108 security program.

Decision brief

Part 108 comes with a TSA layer that most of the debate has ignored: vetting for certain personnel and a TSA-approved security program for certain operators. If you fly BVLOS under a waiver or exemption today, or expect to seek a Part 108 permit or certificate, email TSA before October 19 and ask for a seat, because the model language written in those rooms is what you will be asked to comply with. The notice gives no date for the final rule. The FAA's side of it is still at OIRA, 61 days in as of September 9.

Requests due
Oct. 19, 2026

By email to BVLOS@tsa.dhs.gov

Roundtables held
After final rules

Closed to the public under SSI rules, NDA required

FAA rule at OIRA
Day 61

RIN 2120-AL82, received July 10, Pending Review as of September 9

What TSA published

A solicitation for closed roundtables, due October 19, held after the rules publish.

The Transportation Security Administration published a notice in the Federal Register on September 4 soliciting participants for technical roundtables on the security of unmanned aircraft operating beyond visual line of sight. Requests to participate must reach TSA by October 19, 2026, by email to BVLOS@tsa.dhs.gov. The roundtables themselves will be held after the FAA and TSA final rules are published, and TSA says it may modify the registration period once its rule is out. The notice is dated September 1 and signed by Scott C. Gorton, Acting Assistant Administrator for Strategy, Policy, and Engagement, under RIN 1652-AA80.

The purpose is model language. TSA proposed its security provisions inside the joint Part 108 NPRM of August 7, 2025, and the notice restates them in two pieces: vetting of certain covered personnel, and a requirement that certain operators maintain a TSA-approved security program. TSA says it is finalizing those requirements in coordination with the FAA. Once the rules publish, the roundtables are meant to collect the organizational, structural, technological, and physical methods operators already use to secure BVLOS flights, so TSA can publish model approaches an operator could adopt to satisfy a security program. The notice says TSA anticipates that some procedures operators already follow under FAA waivers or exemptions may adequately satisfy some of the requirements.

Who gets in

Two per organization, SSI cleared, no consensus sought.

The rooms will be closed. TSA is invoking 49 U.S.C. 114(r) and 49 CFR part 1520 to close the meetings as Sensitive Security Information. Every participant must be approved by TSA for SSI access, sign a non-disclosure agreement, and either be a covered person under 49 CFR 1520.7 or be designated one for the event. Participation is limited to two people per company or association, and TSA may narrow it further by topic or room size. The notice is explicit that these are not advisory committee meetings: participants give individual views, and TSA is not seeking consensus recommendations.

Eligibility reaches past today's waiver holders. TSA invites operators currently flying BVLOS under FAA waivers or exemptions, operators that intend to seek an FAA permit or certificate under the final rule, and industry associations representing either group. That covers utilities, delivery operators, public safety agencies running docked programs, and the service companies that would support them under Part 108's third-party services provisions.

What to do

Ask for a seat, and stop treating the TSA layer as a footnote.

On timing, the notice adds a data point without a date. TSA writes of the forthcoming TSA final rule and schedules the roundtables after both final rules publish, which is the posture of an agency expecting publication rather than one waiting on a decision. The FAA's side of the rule, RIN 2120-AL82, has been at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs since July 10 and was still listed as Pending Review on September 9, day 61 of a nominal 90. Nothing in the TSA notice changes what a Part 107 operator can do today. What it changes is the to-do list for anyone planning around Part 108: the security program is not a footnote, and the operators who help write the model language will have the easiest time complying with it.

Part 108 status, kept currentWhat the proposal contains, what the reopened comment period changed, and where the final rule sits.Our OIRA watch on the FAA ruleReceived July 10, Economically Significant, no legal deadline.Check mission requirements todayWhich authorizations a commercial flight needs under the rules that exist now.

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