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