FAA Waiver Surge Moves Public Safety Drones from Pilots to Routine Use

More Than 1,000 Agencies Now Hold FAA Beyond-Line-of-Sight Waivers as Skydio, BRINC and Axon Expand Capacity and St. Louis Starts Answering 911 Calls With Drones

On July 23, 2026, the Electronic Frontier Foundation published a Federal Aviation Administration list, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, that names the public safety agencies cleared to fly drones beyond visual line of sight under a Part 91 waiver. The records showed that more than 1,000 police, fire and emergency management agencies held the approval as of February 2026. That waiver is the legal prerequisite for launching a drone from a rooftop dock to a 911 call without a pilot watching it. According to an FAA representative cited by the foundation, only 976 such waivers were granted between the first drone-as-first-responder program in 2018 and April 2025, so the agency approved more waivers in ten months than in the previous seven years combined.

According to Next Move Strategy Consulting’s Public Safety Drone Market report, the global public safety drone market was valued at USD 1.42 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 11.65 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 23.4% from 2026 to 2035. NextMSC primary research and analysis places the 2026 market at USD 1.75 billion and attributes demand to autonomous drone-as-first-responder adoption, streamlined beyond-visual-line-of-sight approvals, border security investment and real-time crime center integration.

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The Regulatory Clock: Waivers Now, a Routine BVLOS Rule Next

Waivers are a bridge, not the destination. Section 44811 of Title 49 of the U.S. Code, as published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office, directs the FAA to issue a final beyond-visual-line-of-sight rule no later than 16 months after the proposed rule is published. The Federal Aviation Administration released that proposal, known as Part 108, on August 7, 2025, and NextMSC’s calculation from those two dates puts the statutory deadline at December 7, 2026. Vertical Aviation International reported on July 15, 2026 that the FAA filed the final rule with the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on July 10, 2026, the last review stage before publication. No publication of the final rule had been reported at the time of writing, so agencies continue to operate under individual waivers.

The hardware supply chain is being reshaped at the same time. CNN reported on December 23, 2025 that the Federal Communications Commission had barred the import and sale of all new drone models and critical equipment made by foreign manufacturers, including DJI, by adding them to its Covered List. For public safety buyers, that places the product roadmaps of U.S.-based manufacturers at the center of the next purchasing cycle.

FAA Drone-as-First-Responder Waiver Milestones

The Financial Logic: Vendors Commit Capital Ahead of Demand

Public safety drone vendors are committing capital on the strength of that approval pipeline. In its first-quarter 2026 shareholder letter, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 6, 2026, Axon Enterprise reported revenue of USD 807 million, up 34% year over year. Its Platform Solutions category, which Axon defines as primarily including fleet in-car video, interview room and fixed cameras, drones and counter-drone equipment, virtual reality training hardware and related extended warranties, contributed USD 111.2 million, up 95%. Axon stated that counter-drone and drone-as-first-responder products were among its fastest-growing categories in the quarter, and that it estimates a drone-as-first-responder mission launches approximately every 30 seconds in the United States. That cadence is Axon’s own estimate.

Axon’s filing presents Platform Solutions revenue for the quarters ended March 31, 2025, December 31, 2025 and March 31, 2026. The category includes drones and counter-drone equipment alongside other hardware, so it is a company-level indicator rather than a measure of drone sales alone.

Skydio, which describes itself as the largest U.S.-based drone manufacturer, announced on April 24, 2026 that it will invest USD 3.5 billion in the United States over the next five years to expand domestic manufacturing, accelerate research and development and strengthen supply chains. The company’s release projected more than 2,000 new Skydio jobs, support for more than 3,000 additional supply chain roles and more than USD 1 billion directed to domestic suppliers, and stated that its systems are used by more than 3,800 agencies and organizations across militaries, public safety and critical infrastructure.

BRINC, the maker of 911 response drones, announced a USD 125 million financing round on July 14, 2026, led by Motorola Solutions with participation from Index Ventures and Dylan Field, the founder and CEO of Figma. The round brings BRINC’s total capital raised to well over a quarter of a billion dollars, according to the company’s announcement, and funds domestic manufacturing, new products and deployment capacity as BRINC pursues placing a response drone at each of the roughly 80,000 police and fire stations in the United States.

Selected Public Safety Drone Developments in 2026

Key Industry Developments: St. Louis Puts Drones on 911 Dispatch

The most visible local deployment this month came in St. Louis. According to St. Louis Public Radio on November 2, 2026, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department bought six drones and a radar system with funding from the St. Louis Police Foundation. Four drones were ready to fly, two docked at Central Patrol and two at North Patrol, and they would be operated from the real-time crime center at police headquarters and fly to incident scenes from docking stations using GPS guidance. First Alert 4 reported on November 9, 2026 that the department’s Aerial Response Unit responded to its first 911 call hours after the Board of Police passed the program, and that the department launched a transparency portal where residents can review flight paths, calls resolved without an officer dispatch, how often drones respond and average flight time.

“Saving lives will guide our priorities.”

- Robert J. Tracy, Chief of Police, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, St. Louis Public Radio, November 2, 2026.

The policy bars armed drones, rules out routine surveillance and prohibits facial recognition unless a new policy is adopted, St. Louis Public Radio reported. Jay Stanley, a privacy expert with the American Civil Liberties Union, told the station that questions remain over data retention and how recordings can be used, and he raised concern about the use of drones to observe protests.

Segment Dynamics: Software and Autonomy Outgrow Airframes

NextMSC primary research and analysis shows law enforcement and police operations as the largest application in 2025, with a share of approximately 42% and a value of USD 0.60 billion, while traffic management and accident investigation is the fastest-growing application at a 29.1% CAGR from 2026 to 2035. By component, hardware held approximately 48% of the 2025 market, or USD 0.68 billion, but software is the fastest-growing component at a 27.5% CAGR. That growth rate aligns with the operating model now visible in St. Louis, where drone video is routed to a real-time crime center rather than to an individual pilot.

By operation mode, remotely piloted systems led in 2025 with approximately 46% of the market, but fully autonomous operation is the fastest-growing mode at a 31.0% CAGR. Multi-rotor drones held approximately 68% of the 2025 market, while hybrid VTOL drones are the fastest-growing drone type at a 27.0% CAGR. Among end users, police departments accounted for approximately 44%, or USD 0.62 billion, and border patrol and customs agencies are the fastest-growing end user at a 25.9% CAGR. Thermal and infrared cameras held approximately 39% of 2025 payload demand, and sensor payloads for chemical and radiation detection are the fastest-growing payload type at a 27.0% CAGR.

Regional Outlook: North America Leads, Asia-Pacific Grows Fastest

According to NextMSC primary research and analysis, North America led the market in 2025 with approximately 46% of revenue, or USD 0.65 billion, and is projected to reach USD 4.43 billion by 2035 at a 21.2% CAGR. The U.S. market was valued at approximately USD 0.55 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 3.72 billion by 2035 at a 21.1% CAGR, a trajectory that depends on the FAA waiver pipeline and the Part 108 timetable described above.

Asia-Pacific is the fastest-growing region at a 27.0% CAGR, from USD 0.26 billion in 2025 to USD 2.84 billion by 2035, which NextMSC primary research and analysis attributes to police modernization programs and urban surveillance investment in China and India. India is the fastest-growing national market at a 30.5% CAGR, ahead of China at 29.0%. Europe is projected to grow at a 22.3% CAGR under the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s U-space framework, the Middle East and Africa at 25.2% on government-backed border security and smart policing investment, and Latin America at 26.8%.

Growth Drivers and Restraints: The Evidence Matrix

The matrix below draws only on publicly documented external evidence and carries no NextMSC impact estimates.

Public Safety Drone Market: Growth Drivers and Restraints, Documented Evidence

NMSC Strategic Perspective: Platform Contracts Will Decide Who Captures the Spending

NextMSC primary research and analysis indicates that police departments and fire agencies are consolidating drone procurement into multi-year bundled contracts that combine hardware, fleet software and real-time crime center integration. That favors diversified public safety technology platforms over single-hardware manufacturers as autonomous drone-as-first-responder programs spread across metropolitan agencies through 2035. The evidence assembled for this article is consistent with that reading: Axon reports drones inside a platform category that grew 95%, BRINC’s round was led by Motorola Solutions, a public safety communications supplier, and St. Louis routes drone video to a real-time crime center.

NextMSC research indicates that software is the fastest-growing component at a 27.5% CAGR and that fully autonomous operation, at 31.0%, is growing faster than any other operation mode. Suppliers unable to demonstrate credible BVLOS operating scale may face increased competitive pressure in large police department vendor evaluations. The pending Part 108 rule would test that thesis: a routine BVLOS authorization would lower the regulatory barrier for every operator, so differentiation would shift toward software, integration and evidence handling.

For investors, NextMSC primary research and analysis identifies an absolute dollar opportunity of USD 9.90 billion between 2026 and 2035. Two caveats apply. Outcome data on drone-as-first-responder programs comes largely from platform providers, and comprehensive independent national statistics remain limited. Privacy and civil liberties scrutiny, as the St. Louis debate shows, can also delay or reverse launches even where operational justification is strong.

Competitive Landscape

NextMSC primary research and analysis describes a moderately fragmented competitive field in which evidence-platform-integrated autonomous providers, exemplified by Axon Enterprise and Skydio through their joint drone-as-first-responder offering, compete with specialized hardware makers such as BRINC and Teledyne Technologies. NextMSC research profiles 20 companies, including Flock Safety, SZ DJI Technology, Parrot, AeroVironment, Anduril Industries, Percepto, Red Cat Holdings and Autel Robotics.

The dated events in this article show where each supplier is placing capital. Skydio is committing USD 3.5 billion to domestic manufacturing and supply chains, BRINC is expanding manufacturing capacity with Motorola Solutions as lead investor, and Axon is extending a platform that spans cameras, counter-drone systems and software. Each of those moves is documented in a company release or filing cited above.

Bottom Line

The global public safety drone market is moving from waiver-by-waiver experimentation to institutional procurement. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s July 23, 2026 release of FAA records showed more than 1,000 agencies cleared for beyond-visual-line-of-sight flight. Axon Enterprise reported a 95% rise in Platform Solutions revenue, Skydio committed USD 3.5 billion to U.S. production, BRINC raised USD 125 million, and St. Louis answered its first 911 call with a drone in November 2026. Against that, the Part 108 rule remains at White House review, new foreign-made drone models face restrictions, and privacy groups are pressing for limits on data retention, facial recognition and protest monitoring. NextMSC primary research and analysis projects the market to grow from USD 1.42 billion in 2025 to USD 11.65 billion by 2035 at a 23.4% CAGR, with software and autonomous operation growing fastest. Suppliers that pair BVLOS operating scale with transparent use policies are best placed to win the multi-year platform contracts agencies are now writing.

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