In December 2025, major foreign drone manufacturers were added to the FCC Covered List — one milestone in a broader tightening of federal restrictions on foreign-made UAS and their components. Between FCC Covered List additions and expanding NDAA covered-country requirements that reach down to the component level, the sourcing question for US drone programs keeps getting harder.
What the Covered List does
The Covered List restricts equipment from covered foreign entities: new FCC equipment authorizations for covered hardware are blocked. If your drone platform relies on covered-entity products, that supply line has a regulatory ceiling on it. The ripple effects hit every layer of the supply chain.
A propeller has no radio in it — but that doesn't keep component sourcing out of scope. NDAA covered-country and flow-down requirements apply at the component level, so a covered-entity propeller on your platform is a compliance problem for the platform. That's why buyers serving federal, defense, and public-safety markets need their component supply chain clean from the ground up.
Where this sits in the bigger regulatory picture
Covered List additions are one part of a tightening sequence. NDAA covered-country requirements already restrict federal purchase and operation of covered UAS and components (our NDAA explainer covers them in detail). The FCC side adds pressure from the equipment-authorization angle, and state and local agencies are increasingly adopting NDAA-aligned procurement policies of their own.
Meanwhile federal drone procurement is scaling fast while compliant domestic component supply lags — a sourcing gap we lay out on the Why Now page.
What it means for your propeller supply
Most FPV and Group 2 airframes in US service were designed around foreign-made tri-blade propellers — exactly the kind of part these requirements reach. Programs that can no longer source them face a choice: redesign the platform around a different propeller, or find a domestic drop-in equivalent.
Anvil Propulsion exists to be that equivalent — domestic, NDAA-compliant propellers built to the diameter, pitch, blade count, and mount of the props you already fly. See the propeller line for the nine families.