Daniel M. Gerstein
President Donald Trump's June 6, 2025 Executive Order (EO) “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” notes that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones “enhance United States productivity, create high-skilled jobs, and are reshaping the future of aviation.” Its ambitions include “transforming industries from logistics and infrastructure inspection to precision agriculture, emergency response, and public safety.” The EO provides a comprehensive challenge to government and industry to become the global leader in UAS technologies. Its three pillars are integrating UAS into the national airspace system through risk-based rulemaking,
domestic commercialization of UAS at scale, and strengthening the domestic drone industrial base. The EO calls for the rapid maturing of technologies such as beyond visual line of sight or BVLOS operations, increasingly autonomous UAS operations, electric vertical takeoff and landing pilot program, and delivering low-cost, high-performing drones to the nation's warfighters. The EO also highlights the need to address “the growing threats from criminal, terrorist, and foreign misuse of drones inside U.S. airspace,” often called the dual-use challenge.
Given the rapid advances and increasing ubiquity of drone technology, addressing the growing UAS threats in the homeland could prove to be a significant challenge. It requires balancing the EO's goal of the proliferation of technology that is inherently dual-use with the need to identify UAS technologies operating in U.S. airspace and implement defenses and countermeasures to protect the United States, its critical infrastructure, and individuals from actors looking to take advantage of the dual-use nature of drone technology.
Recent events have highlighted the growing concerns associated with proliferation of UAS technologies. A 2024 U.S. Government Accountability Offices report identified the major concerns for the three million drones operating in U.S. airspace as operations near airports and challenges with identifying the drones in flight. Yet in late 2024, alleged “drone sightings” over several East Coast states and sensitive sites caused great consternation—the flights had been occurring over a period of months with little information provided other than assurances from federal government and state leaders that there was no threat to the public and that investigations into the drone sightings were continuing.
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