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FCC says $5B flowed into US drones. Its own filing counts pledges. DroneXL may earn a commission when you buy through links on its site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr takes questions on stage at the SBA Defense Industrial Base Drone Summit on September 24, 2026. Photo credit: FCC FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told the Small Business Administration's Defense Industrial Base Drone Summit on Thursday that President Trump's policies have put "billions of dollars now flowing into production plants here in America." About an hour later, the FCC's official account posted a clip of Carr under a headline claiming $5 billion in new U.S. drone investment. The figure is the FCC's scoreboard for its December 22, 2025 decision to put every foreign-made drone and drone component on the Covered List, which blocks new models from FCC authorization. It is also the economic argument behind the agency's next move: a proposed sales ban on foreign drones carrying thermal cameras, LiDAR or docking stations. On July 21, an FCC fact sheet put the total at over $4 billion. The itemized list the agency published with its July drone proposal counts a five-year pledge as its single largest entry. Carr on stage beneath the Small Business Administration seal at the Defense Industrial Base Drone Summit, September 24, 2026. Photo credit: FCC FCC footnotes mix venture rounds, A valuation and five-year pledges. The FCC's own list of investments sits in two footnotes of FCC Public Notice DA 26-758. One covers money raised since December. The other covers money only committed, and its anchor is Skydio's $3.5 billion plan, spread across five years and announced in April. The raised column cites Zipline's $600 million round alongside a Reuters story on Zipline's $7.6 billion valuation (a valuation is what investors think a company is worth; it builds nothing). It also lists Swarm Aero's Series A and Portuguese drone maker Tekever opening its first U.S. office. A third footnote adds Red Cat's upsized equity offering and PDW's $110 million Series B. Some of it is steel and payroll. The footnotes point to BRINC's new Seattle factory and an Anduril plant that started building high-speed combat drones in March. Motor startup Westmag, which DroneXL covered when it raised $11 million to build drone motors in South San Francisco, reported committed orders for hundreds of thousands of units, a component class the Covered List now bars from new foreign authorizations. The committed column is softer. Skydio's own announcement describes $3.5 billion to be invested over the next five years, with a new plant five times its current space and more than 2,000 jobs. It landed one day after the company closed a $110 million Series F at a $4.4 billion valuation. The same footnote counts a Denton, Texas city council vote on an $870,000 factory incentive and Quantum Cyber's letter of intent to buy a 43,000-square-foot building. The FCC repeated the $5 billion figure on X Thursday, but Carr has been saying it since at least August 4, when he used the figure on the TBPN podcast. That was two weeks after the FCC's written fact sheet, quoted by Military.com, said over $4 billion. The investment number is The FCC's case for banning thermal drones. In DA 26-758, the FCC's bureaus tentatively conclude that banning sales of foreign thermal, LiDAR, docking and heavy-lift drones would "similarly generate substantial investment in domestic production." That projected investment is weighed as a public benefit against the cost to operators, which the notice calls minor. The operators disagreed. Comments in PS Docket 26-189 closed September 2, and Pilot Institute's count of the record (Pilot Institute is a DroneXL partner) found 3,770 filings against the proposal and 16 for it, with 298 from public safety agencies. DJI's own filing, signed by former Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, argues the seven "military-grade" categories were invented inside the FCC and endorsed by no security agency. The proposal, which I covered on July 22, has not been adopted, and the FCC turned down requests to extend its comment window. The squeeze is arriving from other directions anyway. Section 232 tariffs of 25% on imported drones up to 25 kilograms (55 pounds), and 100% on thermal-equipped and heavier aircraft, took effect September 3. On October 13, the FCC stops authorizing new U.S.-built drones that contain DJI or Autel logic-bearing chips. And Thursday's host, the SBA, made drones a priority sector for 90% loan guarantees when it and the Department of War created the Smaller War Plants Commission on August 25. DroneXL's take. I want American drone factories. Skydio's plant, BRINC's Seattle move and Westmag's motor line are good news. What I don't accept is the FCC grading its own ban with a number that blends a Zipline valuation, a city council vote and a five-year promise, then citing that grade as the reason to pull thermal drones off the shelf for fire departments and search teams. I filed DroneXL's comment in Docket 26-189 on September 2, alongside thousands of pilots, agencies and service providers who made the same case. Investment pledges don't find a missing hiker at 2 a.m. A thermal drone does. Until the FCC publishes the tally behind $5 billion and can point to American thermal aircraft a county sheriff can actually buy at a price the budget covers, that number is a talking point, and it should carry no weight in Docket 26-189. DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read its editorial standards. Editor-in-Chief Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Founder of DroneXL.co, where he covers all drone-related news, DJI rumors and writes drone reviews, and of EVXL.co, for all electric vehicle news. Haye can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo. Also on LinkedIn, Muck Rack, Instagram and YouTube. DroneXL reports under its editorial standards. Spotted an error? Read the corrections policy. How DroneXL uses automated tools.

Skydio launches F10 Lightrunner fixed-wing UAV and autonomous MegaDock fleet system. Skydio has unveiled the F10 Lightrunner, its first fixed-wing aircraft, along with the MegaDock, Controller 2, and two new software platforms, Asset Command and Security Command, at its Ascend 2026 event. The F10 is designed for emergency response, search and rescue, and asset inspection missions measured in miles, and will deploy to customers in 2027. The F10 launches in seconds, flies at speeds up to 100 mph, and features the SideEye design that moves the camera off-center outside the rotor plane, keeping the wing out of view so a subject stays in steady view through every maneuver. It uses a Robotic Takeoff and Landing system with a suction-based robotic gripper that launches and catches the aircraft on its own. The MegaDock will house up to five F10s so a team can serve concurrent missions, and a single MegaDock with F10's 30-mile flight radius puts nearly 3,000 square miles within reach of one launch location. Skydio stated: "Twelve years ago, we started Skydio on a bet: build the skills of an expert pilot into the drone so it could fly itself. X10 and R10 proved it indoors and out. F10 proves it works at highway speed and county-line distance." The F10 is built for real-world conditions, with autonomous launch and landing in significant wind, flight day or night and in moderate rain, an integrated parachute, and Connect Fusion+ combining multiple cellular connections for resilient command, control, and live video. Pathfinder plans the route before launch, accounting for terrain, structures, agency boundaries, geofences, and airspace restrictions, while Foresight adapts the flight path in real time. Skydio also introduced Controller 2 with a 7-inch display, 5.5-hour runtime, and IP55 rating, plus a redesigned Cockpit with automated on-station relief. Asset Command imports asset inventories from GIS or CMMS systems and determines the right action for each asset, while Security Command dispatches drones with live video in seconds to verify alarms. Both are available to purchase now, with general availability early next year.

Skydio has unveiled its first fixed-wing aircraft, the F10 Lightrunner, alongside new hardware and software platforms at its Ascend 2026 conference in Nevada. The F10 can fly at speeds up to 100 mph with a 30-mile flight radius, covering nearly 3,000 square miles from a single launch location. The aircraft launches and lands autonomously from MegaDock, which houses up to five aircraft and supports concurrent missions. Deployment to customers begins in 2027. Skydio also introduced two software platforms: Asset Command for infrastructure inspection and Security Command for physical site security. Both will be generally available in early 2027. Additional announcements included Controller 2, an updated mobile app, and camera software upgrades including ThermalBoost and Low-Light Enhance.