Drone News: DJI Gets a Big Win, New Drone Tariffs, Chinese Drone Maker Gets FCC Clearance

Welcome to your weekly UAS News Update, have three stories for you: DJI gets a big win, new drone tariffs, and a Chinese drone maker somehow gets FCC clearance. Let's get to!

DJI just scored its biggest legal win in years. On August 14th, a federal appeals court partially reversed a lower court ruling in DJI's fight against its Pentagon blacklist status. DJI was added to that list back in 2022 as an alleged Chinese military company. The court sided with the government on most points, but on one key issue it agreed with DJI. The Pentagon claimed DJI contributes to China's defense industrial base, but that section of the report was entirely redacted. The court said you can't take the government's word for it. Now the case goes back to the lower court for another look. DJI is still on the blacklist for now and nothing changes for consumers today. But this is the strongest pushback yet against one of the government's key arguments that so far, has lacked public evidence.The Trump administration just announced new tariffs on imported drones and drone parts. Some tariffs go as high as 100%, with drones over 55 pounds and thermal drones facing the top tariff rate. Smaller drones without those features generally face a 25% tariff, allied countries like Japan, Taiwan, and the EU get a lower 15% rate, and the UK gets 10%. Most of these tariffs kick in within weeks. The goal is boosting US drone manufacturing and cutting reliance on China. However, with the FCC appearing to target foreign manufacturer’s ability to sell drones in the US at all… a 100% tariff on $0 is still $0. And HOVERAir just opened pre-orders for its new VERSA, a pocket camera that converts into a self-flying drone. And unexpectedly, it's cleared for sale in the US. That’s right, the HOVERAir VERSA is FCC approved… That's notable because HOVERAir's last drone, the AQUA, missed FCC authorization by weeks and had to refund over two million dollars to US backers. The VERSA weighs 230 grams, shoots 4K at 60 frames per second, and comes in under the FAA's 0.55lb registration threshold. This is a stark contrast to DJI's Osmo Pocket 4, a camera that doesn't fly, is still blocked from US sale. It's a strange contrast, a flying camera gets in, and a handheld one doesn't. Keep in mind this is a crowdfunding pre-order, not a guaranteed purchase, so shipping delays or changes are always possible.And the conversation continues on Post flight where we discuss these stories uncensored in the Premium Community, link is in the description. We'll see you for the live Q&A on Monday. Have a good weekend!https://dronedj.com/2026/08/18/dji-us-blacklist-court-win/https://dronedj.com/2026/08/17/us-drone-import-100-tariffs/https://dronexl.co/2026/08/18/hoverair-versa-fcc-clearance-indiegogo-launch/