FCC drafts would put US drone control on one 450 MHz licence and give counter-drone radar a permanent 24 GHz home

The FCC has scheduled a 19 November vote on two orders that would reshape the radio layer of US drone operations. One would convert a narrow 450 MHz aviation band, held by a single company, into a nationwide licence for drone command-and-control links. The other would let ground-based radar detect drones at 24.45–24.65 GHz under standing rules rather than individual waivers ^[1][2][3]. Chairman Brendan Carr announced the items on 28 October, a day before the Commission opened the 800 MHz cellular band to drones ^[1][15].

What the data says

The 450 MHz band was designed for voice calls to general aviation aircraft at high altitude. Current rules effectively prohibit data and wide-area, low-altitude service ^[1][5]. The FCC’s January 2025 proposal, published in March 2025, would add a non-federal primary aeronautical mobile (route) allocation and allow uncrewed aircraft control and non-payload communications (CNPC) in the band ^[6]. According to DroneXL’s reading of the release, the final orders follow that proposal ^[1].

AURA Network Systems is the only incumbent licensee ^[1]. The drafts would let it convert its site-based licences into one exclusive nationwide licence, without an auction, if it can show coverage at 25,000 feet across the contiguous US, Alaska and Hawaii ^[1][6]. DroneXL reports build-out benchmarks of 400-foot coverage over 17.5% of each regional area within four years and 35% within eight. If high-altitude service is dropped, the targets rise to 35% and 70% ^[1]. Missing the final benchmark in a region would end the licence there automatically. The FCC tentatively found that no windfall payment is warranted but asked whether one should apply ^[1][6].

Sources describe the band differently. DroneXL and the 2025 proposal give 650 kHz, the proposal at 454.6625–454.9875 MHz and 459.6625–459.9875 MHz ^[1][6]. NTIA’s comments give 454.675–454.975 MHz and 459.675–459.975 MHz, which is 600 kHz ^[7]. AURA’s own 2023 description of its network referred to a 1 MHz slice ^[8]. DroneXL counts 53 AURA sites; the 2023 account gave roughly 57 ^[1][8]. The adopted text should settle both points.

The 24 GHz change comes from an Echodyne petition filed in October 2018 ^[1]. The April 2026 drone public notice listed it alongside AURA’s request among the bands under review ^[9]. Drone-detection radar has operated there on waivers since June 2019. In June 2024 the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau extended Echodyne’s waiver by five years and granted MatrixSpace a waiver, both subject to the outcome of the petition ^[1][10]. FCC staff guidance notes that the band is allocated to radionavigation, and that Echodyne’s 2019 stations were licensed as aviation radionavigation land stations ^[11].

The drafts would add federal and non-federal secondary radiolocation. Radar operators must protect users with priority, which DroneXL identifies as aircraft radionavigation, including detect-and-avoid radar, and inter-satellite links ^[1][3][4]. NTIA’s 2025 comments set out the most detailed conditions on record ^[7]:

• Site-by-site licensing, coordinated through the federal Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee ^[7].
• No more than four systems in any square kilometre, unless the licensee shows no harmful interference to radionavigation ^[7].
• 33 dBm transmit power, 24 dBW EIRP and 45 MHz bandwidth, based on Echodyne’s figures ^[7].
• An unwanted-emissions limit of −39 dBW, with protection for passive Earth-sensing bands at 23.6–24.0 GHz ^[7].
• Frequency stability of 10 ppm instead of the 5,000 ppm originally proposed ^[7].

NTIA also reported that DHS holds more than 100 secondary radiolocation assignments in the band for drone detection ^[7]. Whether the drafts adopt NTIA’s figures is not public.

What it means

Detection is not mitigation. Every account of the drafts says they cover detection and tracking only ^[1][2]. Authority to disrupt or take control of a drone comes from the SAFER SKIES Act. The DHS and DOJ interim final rule, effective 1 July 2026, splits state and local authority into a detection-and-warning certification and a separate mitigation certification requiring in-person training ^[12][13]. It also states that the Act does not override the Communications Act, so any emitting counter-drone system still needs FCC authorisation ^[12].

The FCC’s July actions supplied that authorisation as a temporary measure. They included spectrum authority for agencies using listed systems, an equipment-authorisation waiver and a Section 333 ruling covering approved jamming ^[13][14]. Davis Wright Tremaine describes the spectrum authority as a 180-day STA. DroneResponders gives no duration ^[13][14]. On the 180-day figure, the STA would lapse around the end of December 2026. CTIA has asked for interference safeguards and challenged the Section 333 conclusions; the outcome is pending ^[13]. A permanent 24 GHz allocation would put radar detection on firmer ground than the temporary July regime.

At 450 MHz, one licensee will carry control traffic for a growing share of beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations. Its ground network becomes critical infrastructure. The narrowband UHF links that make long-range control possible also carry over long distances, which matters for both interference and collection. None of the sources describes link authentication or encryption requirements, and the drafts may not address them. Routine BVLOS operation also still depends on the FAA’s Part 108 rule, which a statute requires by 7 December ^[15].

What to do

• Counter-drone operators: list every radar and RF sensor you run, with its legal basis (waiver, STA, experimental or Part 87 certification), and plan for transition when the 24 GHz rules and the July STA timelines settle ^[10][11][13].
• Radar operators near airports: expect to coordinate with aircraft radionavigation and detect-and-avoid users, and check siting against the density and emissions conditions NTIA proposed ^[7][11].
• State and local agencies: keep detection and mitigation authorities separate in policy and operations plans; a detection rule does not certify anyone to jam or take over a drone ^[12][14].
• Drone operators planning 450 MHz control links: ask the network provider for coverage commitments at operating altitude, link-loss behaviour and security controls in writing, since none are set out in the public record ^[1][6].
• Spectrum monitoring teams: baseline 454/459 MHz and 24.45–24.65 GHz occupancy at sensitive sites now, so new emitters can be told apart from interference after the rules take effect ^[1][7].
• Everyone: work from the adopted order, not press summaries; band edges, site counts and conditions differ across current reporting ^[1][6][7][8].

The electronic intelligence view

These orders add licensed, predictable emitters to low-altitude airspace: a UHF control network on fixed sites and a population of 24 GHz radars near prisons, borders, stadiums and airports ^[1][5]. Each is a signature. Anyone surveying a protected site will be able to identify where detection radar is placed and how dense it is, and NTIA’s proposed limits indicate what to expect ^[7]. The FCC has been asking since April how far to ease experimental and counter-drone rules while keeping interference protection ^[16]. Once the text is published, regulators elsewhere evaluating the same radars will have NTIA’s parameter set and the FCC’s adopted conditions as a public reference.