Drone Law Blog of Robert E. Kelly, Esq.: Operations Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line Of Sight
AI Analysis
On August 7, 2025, the FAA and TSA issued an NPRM to create 14 CFR Part 108, establishing performance-based rules for routine Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations below 400 feet AGL using third-party traffic management and industry consensus airworthiness standards. The comment period closed October 6, 2025, with over one million submissions received, though final rules remain pending.
Key Takeaways
- Proposed Part 108 would authorize routine BVLOS operations for package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, public safety, and recreation from pre-designated, access-controlled locations.
- Automated Data Service Providers (ADSPs) would provide traffic separation services, supplemented by onboard detect-and-avoid systems and mandatory yielding to manned aircraft broadcasting ADS-B.
- Aircraft would bypass traditional FAA airworthiness certification in favor of industry consensus standards, creating a streamlined approval pathway for UAS manufacturers.
- All Part 108 drones must be equipped with lighting and broadcast Remote ID, while operators are required to address and manage security risks.
- The NPRM attracted 1,025,010 public comments, signaling massive commercial demand, but the FAA has not yet promulgated a final rule.
Why It Matters
The normalization of BVLOS operations will exponentially increase low-altitude drone density, complicating airspace situational awareness and threat discrimination for counter-UAS systems. Defense and homeland security stakeholders must prepare for an environment where cooperative tracking (Remote ID/ADSP) becomes the norm, while adversarial actors could exploit streamlined airworthiness pathways or spoof identification systems within an increasingly congested national airspace.
Drone Law Blog of Robert E. Kelly, Esq.: Operations Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line Of Sight
On August 7, 2025, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published a NPRM titled “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations” in the Federal Register(90 FR 38212; FAA Notice No. 25-07). Among other changes, this NPRM proposes to add a new section to the Code of Federal Regulations, 14 CFR Part 108, entitled “Operations Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line Of Sight”. In that NPRM, FAA and TSA proposed performance-based regulations to enable the design and operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, otherwise referred to as "drones") at low altitudes beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and for third-party services, including UAS Traffic Management, that support these operations. Congress directed the rapid development of this proposed rule in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 knowing that it is needed to support the integration of UAS into the national airspace system.
The comment period for the NPRM closed at the end of October 6, 2025. Comments are publicly available and may be reviewed here. To date, 1,025,010 comments have been received.The FAA has not yet promulgated the Part 108 final rules.
The FAA’s BVLOS Fact Sheet categorizes the proposed rule into several categories, summarized as follows:
- Operations
· The types of operations that would be enabled pursuant to Part 108 BVLOS rules: package delivery, agriculture, aerial
surveying, civic interest – including public safety, recreation, and flight testing.
· Operations would occur at or below 400 feet above ground level, from pre-designated and
access-controlled locations.
· All operators would need FAA approval for the area where they intend to fly.
- Safe Separation
· Operators would utilize entities called Automated Data Service Providers (ADSPs) to
support scalable BVLOS operations. ADSPs could provide services to keep BVLOS drones
safely separated from each other and manned aircraft.
· Drones also would have technologies that enable them to automatically detect and avoid other
cooperating aircraft.
· Drones would yield to all manned aircraft broadcasting their position using ADS-B.
· Drones could not interfere with operations and traffic patterns at airports, heliports, seaplane bases, space launch and reentry sites or facilities where electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft take off or land.
- Aircraft
· Aircraft would not require traditional FAA airworthiness certificates. Rather, this rule
would establish a process for accepting the airworthiness of an aircraft based on industry
consensus standards, intended to create a streamlined approval process.
· The rule would require drones operated under Part 108 to have lighting and to broadcast Remote ID.
- Security
The rule would require operators to address and manage security risks in