Drones Could Be Buzzing Across America’s Skies Like Never Before

Americans could soon see significantly more drones flying overhead as the Trump administration moves to expand advanced unmanned aircraft operations across the country.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is launching Phase 2 of its BEYOND drone program and plans to double its current size by adding as many as eight state, local, tribal and territorial participants. The expansion is designed to help the government work through the remaining obstacles to making routine drone flights a larger part of the National Airspace System, according to the Department of Transportation (DOT).

The BEYOND program puts government agencies and private companies together to test increasingly complex drone operations under real-world conditions. Its first phase recorded more than 70,000 flights, including more than 48,000 operations in which drones flew beyond the visual line of sight of their operators, according to the DOT.

“The FAA reports there are currently 837,513 registered UAS operating in the National Airspace System,” Ryan Wallace, executive director and professor at the Center for Advanced Air Mobility at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there are more than 222,000 aircraft in the U.S. In short, drones outnumber aircraft by [a] factor of 4-to-1. Pilots, air traffic controllers and other stakeholders routinely report sightings of UAS near airports.”

“Safely integrating drones into the National Airspace System is a top priority for the FAA,” an FAA spokesperson told the DCNF. “Drones are already transforming how we deliver goods, inspect infrastructure, support agriculture, and respond to emergencies. Most drones operating today are required to broadcast Remote ID information, which functions like a digital license plate to support airspace awareness and accountability.”

Aerial Traffic Jams

This massive undertaking by the FAA will undoubtedly crowd U.S. airspace, although safety is its number one priority as the U.S. moves to implement this new technology.

“Increased congestion could have a safety impact. With increased congestion, the need for enhanced air traffic management and detect-and-avoid systems (systems used on drones to avoid getting too close to other aircraft—primarily crewed aircraft) increases,” Mark Askelson, associate vice president for research on national security at the University of North Dakota, told the DCNF. “However, the FAA and industry have been taking a stepwise approach to integrating drones into the UAS airspace, with safety being the number one priority.”

“The FAA only authorizes drone operations that can be conducted safely,” an FAA spokesperson told the DCNF. “As operations increase and expand beyond visual line of sight and into more complex shared airspace, the systems supporting operations also need to evolve. That is why the FAA is replacing outdated equipment and building a brand new air traffic control system for the future of flight, which includes automated traffic management, digital identity tools, and enhanced airspace awareness systems.”

The program’s growth comes as the FAA is also pursuing a sweeping regulatory change aimed at making beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations routine rather than exceptional. The proposed rule would establish a regulatory pathway for low-altitude BVLOS flights involving package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, training, demonstrations, recreation and testing, according to the FAA.

“Recent tragic events have underscored the critical importance of maintaining rigorous safety standards for all operators, including drones in our increasingly complex airspace,” Air Line Pilots Association President Capt. Jason Ambrosi told the DCNF. “Additionally, drone operators who violate established rules and airspace restrictions must face appropriate penalties and consequences to ensure compliance and maintain the integrity of our safety framework.”

A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with PSA Airlines Flight 5342 near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 29, 2025, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Another fatal collision occurred at LaGuardia Airport on March 22, when Air Canada Express Flight 8646 struck an airport firefighting vehicle while landing on Runway 4, killing the captain and first officer and sending 39 other people to hospitals, according to the NTSB.

Neither collision involved an unmanned aircraft, but both underscore the stakes of adding substantially more aircraft to an already complex National Airspace System. As the FAA moves to normalize thousands of additional drone operations, pilots and regulators will have to ensure those aircraft can safely coexist with airliners, helicopters, general aviation and airport vehicles without creating new opportunities for traffic conflicts or breakdowns in coordination.

“Pilots, air traffic controllers and other stakeholders routinely report sightings of UAS near airports. As of June 2026, annual UAS sightings climbed to 917 events—an average of more than 150 per month,” Wallace told the DCNF. “While an increase in UAS operation does not automatically translate to degraded safety, increased UAS operations within the national airspace system can add additional challenges—particularly in high-density population areas and airspace with dense air traffic.”

Under current FAA rules, small-drone pilots are required to keep their aircraft within sight and prohibit a pilot or visual observer from simultaneously overseeing more than one drone operation, according to the FAA.

Those restrictions have limited how easily companies can operate large numbers of drones over long distances without special approvals. The FAA said its proposed BVLOS framework is intended to create a “predictable and clear pathway” toward safe, routine and scalable drone operations, according to the agency’s proposed rule.

Managing that traffic could look considerably different from traditional air traffic control.

The FAA is developing an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management system, known as UTM, that relies on digital information sharing among drone operators, service providers and the government rather than traditional radio conversations between individual pilots and air traffic controllers. The system is intended to handle functions including flight planning, authorization, surveillance and conflict management as drone operations increase, according to the FAA.

The FAA has already begun approving systems designed to help companies safely coordinate commercial drone flights that travel beyond the operator’s sight.

The FAA’s long-term vision goes beyond simply allowing a few more delivery drones into the sky. The agency has said it ultimately envisions drones operating alongside crewed aircraft within the same national airspace, rather than relying largely on separating unmanned operations from other aviation, according to the FAA.

“Routine beyond visual line-of-sight operations will fundamentally modernize how low altitude airspace is used in the United States,” Commercial Drone Alliance founder and CEO Lisa Ellman told the DCNF. “With a regulatory framework and digitized airspace system in place, advanced drone operations can occur safely and predictably at scale, supporting everything from infrastructure inspections and public safety response to logistics and agriculture.”

The expanding access could open the door to considerably broader commercial uses as companies deploy drones for deliveries, infrastructure inspections, agricultural monitoring and other operations that are difficult to scale when pilots must maintain visual contact with each aircraft, according to the FAA.

Commercial drone delivery is already operating at meaningful scale in parts of the country. Walmart said in May that it had surpassed one million drone deliveries and was operating the service from 66 stores across four states and five metropolitan areas through drone operating partners such as Wing and Zipline.

Wing and Walmart plan to build a network of more than 270 drone delivery locations by 2027 that could reach more than 40 million Americans.

Amazon is also using its Prime Air drones to carry tens of thousands of eligible products to customers in under an hour. Prime Air was operating in nine U.S. locations as of May, primarily serving the suburbs

“Expansion of drone operations will drive significant economic growth,” Askelson told the DCNF. “While there are challenges (e.g., increased risk associated with such operations), the impacts on everyday Americans will be significant. One of the initial ways in which the impact will be felt is humanitarian (rapid response to accidents that saves lives, prescription medicine delivery, etc.). Beyond this, with scale, economic benefits will be significant since, as a society, we will be able to do things more efficiently/economically.”

“We have certainly seen the benefits of UAS operations in varied commercial and government sectors,” Wallace told the DCNF. “Commercial operators are leveraging UAS technology to perform critical work functions, such as surveying, inspections, and other activities, often at a fraction of the price of conventional methods. Similarly, public safety benefits from deploying the technology in a first-response capacity, enabling early alerting and monitoring of emergency conditions and scene safety.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has framed the regulatory effort as part of a push to ensure the United States remains ahead of foreign competitors in unmanned aviation. The administration wants the next generation of aviation technology to be “developed, tested and built” in the United States, Duffy said, according to the DOT.

“For everyday Americans, expanded drone operations can deliver very real benefits that go far beyond the aviation sector,” Ellman told the DCNF. “Drones are already helping assess disasters, inspect power lines and communications infrastructure, spray crops, and deliver critical goods more safely, quickly, and cost-effectively than traditional methods. As these operations continue to scale, the economic and quality of life benefits for Americans will only increase.”

China still dominates much of the low-cost commercial drone industry and the supply chains that feed it. For every drone produced in the United States, China produces more than 100, then-Defense Innovation Unit Director Douglas Beck told Congress in 2025, citing industry estimates.

Chinese-headquartered companies control roughly 70% of the global consumer drone market and 90% of the U.S. market, Beck said.

Replacing those Chinese-made parts at scale is not as simple as shifting assembly to American factories. Drone components and complete platforms sourced outside China can cost three to five times as much as comparable Chinese products and are often available in far smaller quantities, Beck said during his testimony.

One expert pointed out that the development of drones and UAS technology is going to be a key aspect in U.S. national security as drones become the dominant aspect of modern warfare.

“Our adversaries are investing heavily into autonomy … it is the defining technology of current conflicts (e.g., Ukraine/Russia),” Askelson told the DCNF. “Thus, while it may not be apparent in the everyday lives of Americans, our development of autonomous technologies is critical to being able to counter the aggression of our adversaries and to maintain national security.”

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency is simultaneously trying to determine how increasingly common BVLOS flights, public safety missions, airport operations and other complex drone activity can be safely integrated as the technology spreads, according to the DOT.

“Certainly, America has benefited both economically and practically from drone technology. However, with emerging technologies also come new problems,” Wallace told the DCNF. “The use of UAS has also been adapted for illicit activities such as smuggling contraband into prisons and delivery of narcotics over international borders. In short, the benefits of drones are simultaneously tempered by added social, safety, and security challenges.”