On June 6, the White House issued two sweeping Executive Orders that send a clear message—America intends to reclaim its skies from both growing threats and outdated regulations.

·  Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty focuses on the defense imperative: stopping criminal, hostile, and careless drone use across borders, events, and infrastructure.

· Unleashing American Drone Dominance puts the U.S. drone industry on the offense: accelerating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, export approvals, and domestic manufacturing.

For anyone paying attention to how drones are changing the battlefield, and the homeland, these orders couldn’t have been more timely. Just last week, Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb delivered a sobering reminder of how rapidly the threat landscape is evolving. Using a dense network of $500 drones and low-cost sensors, Ukraine obliterated more than $7 billion in Russian aircraft, not by outspending their adversary, but by outmaneuvering traditional defenses.

The timing couldn’t have been more striking. While the Executive Orders were already in motion, Spiderweb made their purpose painfully clear, airspace sovereignty can’t wait. The era of reactive air defense is over. What comes next must be layered, lawful, and ready to deploy.

Why CUAS Is Now Front and Center

The Sovereignty EO signals a shift from passive monitoring to proactive defense. It orders federal agencies to:

• Fund state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) CUAS monitoring capabilities
• Expand legal authority to detect and track drones
• Update guidance on counter-UAS technology
• Designate national airspace priorities; borders, bases, and mass gatherings for enhanced protection

Meanwhile, the Drone Dominance EO empowers the commercial drone sector to scale, with strong alignment to national security:

• A BVLOS rule within 30 days
• AI-powered waiver reviews to streamline approvals
• Expansion of U.S. drone exports and supply chain security
• A pilot program to accelerate eVTOL adoption

Together, the orders treat drones as both a strategic threat vector and a strategic asset. Airspace solutions must now serve a dual purpose, protect the homeland from aerial threat while creating the trust layer that lets commercial innovation scale safely.

Federal Policy Now Requires Airspace Awareness at Critical Sites

For the first time, drone detection and response around airports, energy facilities, government buildings, and other critical infrastructure is not just encouraged—it’s federal policy.

Under the Airspace Sovereignty EO, the FAA is now required to:

• Finalize long-delayed rules to restrict drone flights over fixed-site facilities
• Coordinate with DHS, DoD, and SRMAs to define and defend high-risk sites
• Make NOTAMs and TFRs freely available in machine-readable formats to support automated geofencing and airspace compliance

Additionally, private infrastructure owners will now receive federal guidance on how to detect and track drones legally—opening the door for compliant monitoring at facilities that were previously left to self-regulate.

That includes:

• Airports, where rogue drones threaten flight operations
• Ports, which face growing risk from foreign-operated UAV surveillance
• Energy sites, including nuclear, petrochemical, and grid infrastructure
• Public venues and stadiums, especially those hosting national events
• Military-adjacent civilian infrastructure, where jurisdiction was once unclear

If you manage a site that matters, monitoring your airspace is no longer optional, it’s expected.

Built for Safety. Proven at Scale.

At Hidden Level, we’ve been building for exactly this moment. Our passive RF sensing network is:

• Lawful and Title 18 compliant—with no FCC licensing required
• Proven and deployed—at Stewart AFB, AT&T Stadium, NASA, and across other sensitive critical infrastructure
• Open API-based—and easily integrated with platforms like Palantir Maven, ESRI,  and ATAK, or CommandX
• Scalable as a service—delivered commercial off-the-shelf without the need for special permissions or installation headaches

And we’re not new to this. We’ve been delivering real-time airspace monitoring in some of the most complex, high-risk environments in the country, including continuous operations over Washington, D.C., since 2021.

From major military installations to critical infrastructure and national events, our system is already supporting multi-agency coordination, legal compliance, and operational readiness.

This isn’t theoretical. It’s operational, and it’s built for the mandates these executive orders just made national policy.

What Happens Next

The Executive Orders aren’t just statements of intent—they come with deadlines. Here’s what’s coming next and why it matters:

In the Next 30 Days

• FAA must propose a BVLOS rule to enable routine commercial and public safety drone operations.
• DOJ and DHS must ensure SLTT grant programs can fund drone detection and CUAS equipment.
• Federal Acquisition Security Council must publish a list of foreign drone entities that pose supply chain risks.
• DOJ and DHS begin integrating CUAS into Joint Terrorism Task Forces to support major event security.
• Federal agencies must revise outdated CUAS tech guidance to reflect current law and capabilities.

In the Next 60 Days

• FAA must provide real-time access to UAS Remote ID data to authorized federal and SLTT agencies—with privacy safeguards.
• DHS and FAA must publish guidance to help private critical infrastructure legally deploy drone detection and tracking systems.

In the Next 90 Days

• DoD must expand the Blue UAS list to include all compliant drones and components made in the U.S.
• FAA must open proposals for an eVTOL pilot program in partnership with state and local governments.
• Commerce must initiate rulemaking to secure the domestic drone supply chain and protect against foreign exploitation.
• DoD must report on which existing defense programs could be replaced by cost-effective drones.
• FAA and DoD must streamline access to airspace and spectrum for drone training and operations.

Within 240 Days

• FAA must publish a new roadmap for integrating civil drones into the National Airspace System.

These timelines don’t just create urgency. They create opportunity—for government agencies, private infrastructure owners, and commercial drone operators to align with a national strategy that’s now fully in motion.

Bottom Line

Airspace sovereignty is no longer a debate. It’s a directive.

For agencies, commanders, and communities, the new challenge isn’t “if” you’ll defend your airspace. It’s how fast you can stand up a solution that’s legal, scalable, and proven.

👉 Want to stay ahead of the mandates, milestones, and market shifts?
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