AUVSI Helped Tip the Scales for Autonomy in 2025

January 1, 2026

The year uncrewed systems, robotics, and physical AI became central to national strategy

2025 marked a turning point for robotics and autonomous systems.

Uncrewed systems, robotics, and physical AI shifted from emerging technologies to strategic capabilities that are central to national security, economic competitiveness, and advanced manufacturing. Policymakers began treating autonomy not as a niche innovation, but as foundational infrastructure for the next industrial era.

That shift was deliberate. And AUVSI helped drive it.

Throughout 2025, AUVSI brought industry expertise directly into the policy process by engaging Congress, federal agencies, state governments, and the White House to ensure autonomy policy reflected operational reality, market readiness, and the need for trusted, scalable ecosystems.

The result was not a single win, but a year of cumulative progress that moved autonomy from fragmented momentum to coordinated national action.

Here’s what AUVSI helped make happen in 2025, and why it matters.

Autonomy Became Infrastructure

One of the most important outcomes of 2025 wasn’t a single bill or rulemaking but a fundamental reframing of how autonomy is treated in national policy.

Uncrewed systems and robotics are increasingly being treated as critical infrastructure: capabilities that underpin national security, economic competitiveness, and U.S. leadership in advanced manufacturing. That shift showed up in major federal actions that elevated drones and next-generation aviation as coordinated national priorities, including the first whole-of-government strategy and action plan for advanced air mobility, which references AUVSI’s Blueprint for Autonomy.

AUVSI successfully advocated for real implementation mechanisms, clear demand signals, and policies that strengthen trusted domestic and allied ecosystems.

Historic Funding and Demand Signals for Defense Autonomy

In 2025, autonomy was finally funded, creating a true demand signal for American industry.

AUVSI’s defense advocacy helped secure a $1 billion allocation in the HR1 budget reconciliation bill for drone acquisition, a landmark investment that strengthens the demand signal for National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)-compliant systems and supports U.S. production capacity.

At the same time, AUVSI helped shape the Department of War’s Drone Dominance initiative, including elements of the Request for Information (RFI) and the Gauntlet competition framework. The goal is straightforward: move faster, contract smarter, and scale U.S. and allied small UAS production in ways that translate innovation into fielded capability.

2025 also delivered major progress on trusted pathways for procurement and adoption. Green UAS was adopted as a pathway to Blue UAS, helping expand access to trusted, NDAA-aligned platforms while reducing barriers to entry for qualified manufacturers. In parallel, AUVSI was designated as a Recognized Third-Party Assessor under the Blue UAS program, authorized to support certifications and participate in the development of updated assessment criteria, reinforcing AUVSI’s role in strengthening security, transparency, and confidence across the defense and government drone ecosystem. Additionally, AUVSI added two new designations to Green UAS in 20250—Green UAS Cleared and Green UAS Certified—streamlining established scalable pathways for U.S. drone manufacturers and government agencies to meet trusted-system and NDAA-aligned sourcing expectations.

AUVSI’s advocacy also contributed to key industrial base protections in the 2026 NDAA, including the establishment of a Small UAS Industrial Base Working Group and safeguards ensuring new defense concepts do not unintentionally undermine the broader commercial ecosystem that drives innovation and capacity.

These historic policy changes form the foundations of a defense autonomy market that can scale responsibly, and a U.S. industrial base that can finally compete on a fair playing field.

Supply Chain Security Moved from Talking Point to Action

In 2025, supply chain security became a real driver of policy decisions across multiple agencies and levels of government.

AUVSI helped advance concrete federal action to mitigate foreign dependence and strategic vulnerabilities, contributing to:

HR1 support for strengthening domestic drone manufacturing and resilience
A U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Section 232 investigation into drone supply chains and national security risk
Commerce Dept. Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) rulemaking focused on PRC drones and systemic technology vulnerabilities

At the component level, AUVSI supported a key NDAA provision prohibiting procurement of batteries sourced from foreign adversaries, reinforcing trusted sourcing requirements across defense acquisition.

And beyond aviation, AUVSI helped push supply chain risk into the broader autonomy ecosystem—building momentum around restricting foreign adversary-made LiDAR sensors in Department of Transportation (DOT)-funded procurements and elevating real-world infrastructure deployment concerns.

In 2025, U.S. policymakers moved from “we should care about supply chain risk” to “we are building the tools to reduce it.”

Real Progress Toward Scale: BVLOS and Airspace Security

In 2025, the FAA issued the long-awaited Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), setting the stage for scaled commercial operations. AUVSI played a significant and sustained role in shaping the environment that made that progress possible through expert engagement with FAA and DOT leadership, contributions in Congressional working groups, and formal testimony on airspace integration priorities.

2025 also delivered meaningful movement on counter-UAS and airspace security, including passage of the SAFER Skies Act as part of the NDAA—advancing stronger FAA involvement, more robust training requirements, and a more usable operational framework for real-world detection and mitigation.

Together, these steps reflect what industry has long needed: the foundations for a scalable operating environment.

Raising the Bar on Trust: Professionalizing Maritime Autonomy

For autonomy to scale, it must be trusted, and trust comes from standards, training, and operational discipline.

In 2025, AUVSI launched the Trusted UMS Operator Program, an industry-led certification framework designed to professionalize uncrewed maritime operations through rigorous standards for operators, instructors, training providers, and organizations.

This milestone reflects a broader theme across autonomy: moving from experimentation to repeatable, credible, and scalable deployment.

States Delivered Real Policy and Real Resources

While Washington set national direction in 2025, state governments increasingly moved from interest to implementation.

AUVSI helped advance advanced air mobility preparedness legislation in Texas, Arizona(enacted into law), and California(bill remains live), supporting policymakers with testimony and practical frameworks for integration.

AUVSI also helped secure tangible state investment through drone replacement program funding in North Dakota and Virginia, delivering real-world progress on trusted procurement and pathways for agencies to transition away from high-risk platforms.

And as autonomy converges across sectors, AUVSI filed comments on California’s proposed autonomous vehicle regulations to support larger autonomous system, an important step for industrial and logistics applications that require scale.

Robotics and “Physical AI” Became National Competitiveness Priorities

In 2025, AUVSI helped elevate robotics, autonomy, and physical AI into serious national policy conversations—tied directly to manufacturing competitiveness, defense readiness, and industrial resilience.

AUVSI advanced the case for a National Robotics Strategy, laying the groundwork for multiple robotics strategy bills expected in early 2026, shaped with significant AUVSI and member input and reinforced by engagement with Department of Commerce and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

AUVSI also ensured U.S. AI policy reflects a critical reality: the next era of AI leadership will be defined as much by AI deployed in the physical world as by software, through robots, autonomous systems, and next-generation industrial automation. That’s why AUVSI elevated physical AI as an export priority through formal comments to the International Trade Administration.

What These Wins Add Up To, and What Comes Next

The autonomy ecosystem moved in 2025 from fragmented progress to coordinated policy momentum, and AUVSI helped drive the shift.

This year delivered:

Historic funding and demand signals for defense autonomy
Stronger industrial base protections and supply chain enforcement tools
Real progress toward scaled operations through BVLOS and counter-UAS frameworks
Professionalization through trusted standards and certification
State-level laws and investments that accelerate real deployment
National momentum for robotics strategy and physical AI competitiveness

The decisions being made now—on procurement, regulation, supply chains, and national strategy—will determine whether the United States leads the next industrial era of autonomy or falls behind strategic adversaries.

This is the essential work of AUVSI’s advocacy: building credibility, maintaining presence, and earning trust long before decisions are made.

Get Involved

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