October 24, 2025

Drone News: Emergency Proposed Ban on DJI and Autel Drones, New Payload Can Physically Restrain Suspects From Air, and Alleged Drone Smuggling Into Prison

6 minutes

Post Flight on Community:https://bit.ly/pilot-institute-communityWelcome to your weekly UAS News Update. We have three stories for you this week: a Florida Senator is pushing for an emergency retroactive ban on DJI and Autel drones, a new drone payload can physically restrain suspects from the air, and several men who were alleged to have used a drone to drop contraband into a prison.

Florida Senator Rick Scott sent a letter on October 20th to the FCC, urging the agency to take aggressive action against DJI and Autel Robotics. He's not just asking for a future ban; he's demanding the FCC retroactively revoke ALL equipment authorizations for DJI and Autel devices that have been issued since December 23rd, 2024. The letter specifically calls out what Scott describes as a "deliberate evasion strategy" where Chinese companies allegedly use shell companies to get around U.S. restrictions.Now, as always, is a good time to reach out to your representatives to demand an extension on the audit. The audit needs to be completed to end this national security debate once and for all. Next up, we have a story that sounds like it's straight out of a sci-fi movie. Wrap Technologies, the company behind the BolaWrap, has just unveiled a drone payload system that can physically restrain a person from the air. It's called the DFR-X payload, or MERLIN-Interdictor, and it essentially mounts their tether technology onto a drone. This marks a major shift for Drone as First Responder, or DFR, programs, which have so far focused entirely on observation and situational awareness. Now, they're moving into active intervention.So how does it work? The system is a drone-agnostic payload with six cassettes. Each cassette can deploy an 8-foot Kevlar tether that shoots out at over 500 feet per second to wrap around a suspect's arms or legs. The company says it's a non-lethal tool designed to deter, delay, and disrupt threatening behavior before officers arrive on the scene. They're positioning it as a life-saving tool for situations like active shooters in schools or dynamic SWAT operations. Pre-orders are scheduled to begin on November 17th, 2025, though no pricing has been announced. And finally, we have another story about the misuse of drones. Three men were arrested near Washington State Prison in Georgia after deputies allegedly found them with a drone and other evidence that was quote “indicative of an attempted drone drop”. According to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, deputies allegedly spotted a suspicious vehicle leaving the prison area just after midnight on Saturday and pulled it over for traffic violations. Inside, they found the drone and arrested the three individuals on charges of Trading with Inmates and Flying an Unmanned Aircraft.This isn't an isolated incident; it's a full-blown crisis. This was the second major bust at this same prison in just 10 days. The local sheriff reported that his office stopped 21 attempted drone drops in 2024 alone. Statewide, the Georgia Department of Corrections has logged over 1,000 drone incidents since 2022. https://dronexl.co/2025/10/21/wrap-drone-physically-restrain-suspects/https://dronexl.co/2025/10/21/three-arrested-drone-contraband-georgia-prison/https://dronexl.co/2025/10/21/dji-drones-could-be-banned-this-week/

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