Drone News Government Gone Wild Edition: Three New Bills Restricting Drones, and The ACSL Soten

The first bill we’re going to cover is the Oklahoma, which would restrict state entries from purchasing or operating drones built or assembled by a covered foreign entity. Waivers of HB3068 are available through the state’s Office of Management and Enterprise Services. Waivers can be granted for criminal investigations, counter UAS, and “difficult circumstances”. Under this bill, state entities would be restricted starting May 1st, 2027. Next up is Missouri, where we saw the drone surveillance scheme last week. The state’s response is House Bill 1204, which would ban surveillance by drone. This one doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad as the St. Louis bill we saw last week but we have some questions… What does surveillance mean? What constitutes observation - nearly viewing through the camera of a drone? The answers to the observation question could completely restrict commercial UAS operations if observing through a camera as a by-product of a shot is not allowed. We’ll keep you updated with what we see out of this one. Third up is Utah, which seems to be trying to control airspace. The bill is sponsored by Ryan D. Wilcox, references recreational flying and “14 CFR section 101”… Go home Ryan, you’re drunk… Recreational operations are now 49 USC 44809, and have been since 2018… The bill would restrict operations over electric lines for public transport, over critical infrastructure, and would limit Part 107 waivers issued by the Waiver officer, specifically waivers for operations over 400’ AGL. If you’re in Utah, please reach out to Mr Wilcox and let him know this is unacceptable. Fourth this week is the CISA and FBI’s Guidance on Cyber security for Chinese manufacturers UAS. The document does not take a side, and instead provides facts regarding possible cyber threats, going as far as to state “Identify and select the UAS platforms that best meet the operational and security requirements of the organization.” The fact sheet provides federal guidance and recommendations on how to mitigate possible cybersecurity threats, specifically from Chinese manufactured UAS. The document also includes references and other resources for those of you who may want to look into this further, and we’ll leave a link below so you can read it for yourself. In all reality, many of the rules and guidance in this document can be applied to most things you do online. Alright! We’re through the government craziness for now! Last up this week is the ACSL Soten, A Japanese NDAA compliant drone that has now been released to the US! The Soten has a number of payloads including visible camera, IR+visual, and a multispectral camera. The drone uses 94Wh Li-Ion battery pack for a maximum flight time of 29 minutes. Soten also has a vision system and an infra red sensing system for obstacle avoidance, maximum range of 4km, and a number of available accessories including a smart controller! We’ve reached out to ACSL to see if we can get one to test out! Alright, that’s it, have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week! https://product.acsl.co.jp/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ACSL_SOTEN_pamphlet_EN.pdf https://www.okhouse.gov/posts/news-20230117_1 https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/HB0142.html https://house.mo.gov/billtracking/bills141/biltxt/intro/HB1204I.htm https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/Cybersecurity%20Guidance%20Chinese-Manufactured%20UAS.pdf