Drone Exports Got Easier and Drone Imports Got Pricier on the Same Day. Your Bill of Materials Sits in Between.

Two documents dated August 13 pull in opposite directions. One makes it easier to sell an American drone abroad. The other makes it more expensive to bring a drone, or eventually many of its parts, into the country.

The first is a Bureau of Industry and Security final rule that rewrites the export controls on unmanned aircraft [1]. The second is a presidential proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act imposing tariffs on drones and drone components [3]. If you build drones in the U.S., you’re the target audience for both, and the overlap is worth reading carefully.

The export side: three hours is the new line

The BIS rule, signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Strategic Trade Julia A. Khersonsky, published August 14 and took effect August 13 [1].

Some history first. Executive Order 14307, issued June 6, 2025, told Commerce to revise the Export Administration Regulations to speed exports of U.S.-made drones [1]. In January, BIS issued an interim rule [2]. Before it, civil drones in ECCN 9A012.a.1 (30 minutes to an hour of endurance, plus tolerance for 25-knot gusts) needed a license everywhere except Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom [2]. The January rule let drones under one hour go license-free to most Wassenaar members, and let long-range cargo and agricultural spraying drones go to close allies under License Exception STA [2].

The final rule goes much further [1]:

• Wind gust tolerance is gone as a control parameter.
• 9A012.a.1 now covers any drone under three hours of endurance, controlled for anti-terrorism reasons only, as long as it lacks 300 km of range and doesn’t meet the spraying-system entry, 9A120. Three hours or more stays under national security controls.
• Payloads can pull a drone back in. At any endurance, a drone carrying certain thermal imagers (6A003), lasers (6A005) or inertial measurement gear (7A001, 7A002, 7A003 or 7A005) stays under national security controls. BIS’s reason: adversaries shouldn’t get “sensitive optical or navigational equipment by purchasing inexpensive, low-endurance drones that have high-performance, easily-removable payloads” [1].
• Software and technology follow the airframe. For drones under three hours, national security controls come off ECCNs 9D001, 9D002, 9D004 and 9E001. BIS says this lets “operating software updates for widely available commercial UAVs” go out without a license to most destinations [1].
• Military end-use rules stay. BIS added those same ECCNs to the list in supplement no. 2 to part 744, so the military end-use and end-user license requirements of section 744.21 still apply [1].
• A new home for military-designed drones. ECCN 9A610.a now covers drones specially designed for military use that aren’t on the U.S. Munitions List, and a new 9A610.y.33 picks up their brackets, controllers, chargers, docks and propellers [1].

That last change has a sharp edge. BIS says a drone modified for a military customer “by adding at least one feature or capability that would not also be included for civil or commercial purposes, regardless of significance” should be reviewed for 9A610.a [1].

BIS’s case is foreign availability. The rule says the know-how to design drones that fly 60 minutes or more is “taught in universities, and embedded in open-source development communities,” and that broad license requirements push foreign buyers to competitors [1]. It received 12 comments on the January rule, nine of them substantive, and says commenters were broadly supportive [1]. One commenter argued BIS should allow no drone technology exports at all; BIS replied that exports under these controls strengthen the defense industrial base [1]. BIS also declined to free heavy FAA-certified long-range drones, saying they still offer capabilities adversaries could use [1].

The Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg trade report summarized the rule the same way on August 18, listing the endurance change and the military end-use controls among its main points [5].

The import side: 100 percent, 25 percent, and a February date

The proclamation’s case is supply chain dependence. It records the Commerce Secretary’s finding that “Most commercial and industrial UAS, even those produced in the United States, incorporate critical parts and components produced overseas,” naming motors, electronic speed controllers, lithium-ion batteries and docking stations [3]. It also cites software that sends data back to foreign manufacturers through the “factory installed operating system” [3].

The rates [3, 4]:

• 100 percent on drones over 25 kilograms maximum take-off weight, drones that integrate thermal imagers, docking stations and the components in Annex I, from September 3.
• 25 percent on drones at or under 25 kilograms in Annex II, also from September 3.
• 25 percent on the components in Annex III from February 9, 2027, a delay the proclamation says is meant “to incentivize production onshoring.”

Products from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the EU are capped at 15 percent, and from the UK at 10 percent, but only if the importer certifies that substantially all critical components and technology come from the U.S. or those partners [3]. The duties stack on top of other duties [3]. Commerce may add components on a rolling basis [3].

Two relief valves matter for builders. Companies on the Department of War’s Blue UAS Cleared List, the Blue UAS Framework or the FCC’s Conditional Approval List as of September 2 get a start date 180 days from the proclamation for listed products and their components [3]. And Commerce will run an onshoring program: approved companies building U.S. capacity, with construction before January 20, 2029, can import parts and production equipment duty-free in proportion to expected output [3].

What it means if you build drones

This part is opinion.

Classify by payload, not by airframe. The endurance number is easy to read off a spec sheet. The payload exceptions aren’t. A sub-three-hour airframe with a 6A003 thermal core is still a national security item, and the same thermal imager puts the import version in the 100 percent tier [1, 3]. If your product line has a thermal SKU, it’s two products for trade purposes.

The software relief is real. BIS’s own example is operating software updates, which for a.1 drones can now go to most destinations without a license [1]. If you ship firmware over the air to foreign customers, that’s the change you’ll feel first. It may also narrow the foreign-national engineering question I wrote about in June’s column on model export controls, though anti-terrorism controls remain [1].

Watch the “regardless of significance” test. A defense customer asks for one custom feature, and your commercial drone may become a 600-series item [1]. That’s a legibility problem. Small companies selling to both markets may end up filing classification requests, which BIS reminds exporters they can do [1].

Your BOM is the tariff exposure. The proclamation’s own finding is that U.S. makers depend on imported motors, ESCs, batteries and docks [3]. If those land in Annex I, the duty starts September 3; if Annex III, February 9 [3]. Read the annexes against your parts list this week. And if you’re on the Blue UAS or Conditional Approval lists, the delay helps, which ties to the FCC’s proposed import ban I covered August 6.

Process note. BIS says the rule is exempt from notice and comment under the Export Control Reform Act, and it estimates the rule will cut 30 license applications a year [1]. The January rule gave the same 30 estimate [2]. Two rounds of decontrol, the same figure. I’d like to see the math.

What I’m watching

• September 3. First tariff entries for Annex I and Annex II items [3, 4].
• Commerce’s 120-day update. The proclamation requires one within 120 days, including market conditions [3].
• The onshoring program. Commerce has to write the rules for approving plans and certifying allied-origin parts [3]. Whoever drafts those decides who pays.