Two lists get asked about in the same breath — the Blue UAS Cleared List and the Blue UAS Framework — and a third document, the Drone Dominance Program supply-chain framework, is now the one with a row for propellers and dates attached to it. This piece separates the three and quotes the propeller row in full.
Blue UAS: the cleared list and the framework
The Blue UAS Cleared List is a list of complete aircraft that have been vetted for DoD use; the Blue UAS Framework is a list of components — flight controllers, radios, GNSS, ESCs, cameras, Remote ID — vetted for use in building such aircraft. Both began at the Defense Innovation Unit; per the Drone Dominance framework, compliance is now governed by a system managed by DCMA. The Framework's published selections are electronics and software; it does not carry a propeller entry.
The Drone Dominance supply-chain framework
The Drone Dominance Program Supply Chain Framework, Version 2, is dated 23 July 2026. It is not a statute — it governs participation in DoD's program to buy small UAS at scale — but it is the most specific component-level sourcing schedule DoD has published, and it says its goal is a wholly domestic sUAS supply chain. It sets requirements per component area in dated phases: Phase 2 minimum (August 2026) is the floor for participation, Phase 3 minimum (February 2027) and Phase 4 (August 2027) tighten further, and each phase's preferred column becomes the next phase's minimum. NCC means non-covered country.
Row 10: propellers, airframe and structural components
The propeller row covers propellers, carbon-fiber frame, molded parts, fasteners, canopy, wiring harness and connectors. In the framework's own words:
- Phase 2 minimum, August 2026: "NCC assembly; specialty metals US/qualifying-country melted (10 USC 4863/4872); ASDA-compliant entity."
- Phase 2 preferred, which becomes the Phase 3 minimum in February 2027: "NCC assembly and fabrication; NCC frame materials; NCC connectors and wiring."
- Phase 3 preferred, which becomes the Phase 4 minimum in August 2027: the same, plus "Berry Amendment compliant fasteners."
- Phase 4 preferred: "US/nearshored assembly, fabrication, frame materials, fasteners, connectors, and wiring."
Read for a propeller: from February 2027 the minimum is a propeller fabricated outside a covered country from non-covered-country material, and the direction of travel is a propeller made in the United States or nearshored. That is the same month the Section 232 propeller tariff takes effect — two separate mechanisms, one date.
What the framework says about cost
The document is candid: components from non-covered countries "will be more expensive, at least initially," and "it is actual demand for compliant components that will drive their costs down over time." It calls the situation a chicken-and-egg problem the program exists to break "by creating a credible, multi-year demand signal." That is the buyer explaining the premium and what removes it.
What to do with it
- If you are building for the program, treat the Phase 3 minimum as the specification for any propeller you qualify now: it takes months, and February 2027 is the date.
- Ask any propeller supplier where the part is molded and where its resin and reinforcement come from — the two facts the row turns on.
- Read the framework alongside the bill-of-materials guide, which walks the other rows.
Anvil's line is domestic and referenced to the Gemfan and HQProp parts US platforms were designed around — see the propeller line and the compliance overview.