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NDAA

Overview

As of 2024, NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) hardware is required for drone operations in the United States in certain locations. BlueUAS is a program to certify hardware and simplify the procurement process. In late 2025, the FCC increased the restrictions in conjunction with the 2025 NDAA act, banning non-NDAA hardware going forward. In early 2026, the FCC clarified that custom drones with BlueUAS components are permitted as long as domestic components exceed 65 percent of the total cost of the finished product.

  • Cube Orange+ -- We build software to communicate with OrangeCube (H7+) flight controllers (Ardupilot/PX4) using standard telemetry protocols (Mavlink2) via an onboard companion computer (NDAA-compliant Raspberry Pi) running a custom linux distribution. Bi-directional communication over WiFi to a static base station connected via 4G/D2D in the field allows us to plan, distribute and coordinate missions from a central dashboard. We use our platform to calibrate and capture data from different sensor platforms locally and then synchronize our session post-flight with the backend. From there, we can generate a map, generate trip analytics and apply custom AI models. We can run our software in air-gapped environments with a local time server to monitor devices in the field and build maps on the fly.

NDAA hardware companies

  • 3DR -- US made drone and radio hardware.
  • NWBlue -- NDAA drone hardware vendor.
  • Lumenier -- NDAA drone hardware vendor.
  • ModalAI -- PX4 developer kits, using Qualcomm processors with support for running TFLite models.
  • Wingtra -- Advanced VTOL surveying drone platform.
  • Ebee-X -- Advanced surveying drone platform.
  • GreenSight -- Agriculture drone platform.
  • AeroCogito -- Affordable flight controllers (H7).
  • Auterion -- Advanced flight controllers with integrated cellular networking and Jetson (NVidia) integration.
  • ARK Electronics -- Advanced flight controllers (M7) with Raspberry Pi/Jetson integrations and RTK support.
  • Tycho Voyager -- A low-SWaP autonomy stack for navigation.
  • Bavovna -- A low-SWaP autonomy stack for navigation.