In late December, the Federal Communications Commission set the drone world abuzz with a sudden announcement that all new models of foreign-made drones and critical components would be banned from the United States.

The move, aimed at reshoring and shoring up America's drone industry, took many observers by surprise given the state of domestic drone supply chains.

Because of the fledgling nature of America's domestic drone industry, the ban is likely to throttle the overall availability of cheap, cutting-edge drones and spike prices for American hobbyists, consumers and businesses in the next few years.

"It's an absolute s---show. It's terrible. The United States doesn't make any drone components," Chris Larson, CEO of the American drone-component manufacturer Standard Systems, told NBC News. "There's a few suppliers here and there, but it's really only popped upwards over the last couple years."

"The reality is, in the drone world, everything is made in China, and it's going to take some time for things to get ramped up here," he said.

Asserting that non-American drones pose "unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States," the FCC's ban will affect huge swaths of America's drone users who depend on cheap, primarily Chinese drones, as America's drone supply chain and manufacturing capabilities are either nonexistent or nascent, according to NBC News' interviews with 12 American drone manufacturers, experts, former defense officials and investors. They say catching up with China's drone production quality and quantity will take some time — and pain.

China is estimated to manufacture around 70% to 90% of drones used in America, depending on the exact use scenarios, and it controls close to 90% of the global drone market. One Chinese drone brand in particular, DJI, is thought to hold well over two-thirds of America's personal and commercial drone market share.

While many Americans use drones for fun, racing them competitively or using them to capture sweeping panoramic videos, many have grown to rely on the cheap drones for business purposes — from surveying whale blowholes to pollinating cornfields. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, over 837,000 drones were registered to fly in the United States as of 2025.

The FCC's recent ban, which was amended Jan. 7 to provide a year of leeway for certain drone brands to continue selling new models, will allow Americans to continue purchasing existing foreign-made models sold as of the date of the ban.

Some sort of a ban was expected by many observers and had been telegraphed for years. The 2023 American Drone Security Act banned federal agencies from purchasing foreign-made drones, while the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act launched the review process that culminated in the recent ruling. Despite those earlier efforts, the size and immediacy of the Trump administration's ban caught many by surprise.

"I think the breadth of what they released was unexpected, but the actual actions themselves were not," said Scott Shtofman, vice president for regulatory affairs at the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, the drone industry's leading trade group.

"The scale of automated, autonomous production lines that you'd see in China, we don't have that, and that's because we didn't have a demand signal against this subsidized Chinese platform," Shtofman said, arguing that China's drone dominance has emerged from heavy state support.

The FCC's new ban is the latest salvo in America's race to embrace drones, joining ongoing drone initiatives funded by the U.S. military and laid out in an executive order in July aimed at unleashing American drone dominance.