New FAR Part 89 required that after Sept. 16, 2022, no unmanned aircraft system (UAS) can be produced without FAA-approved remote identification capability. But that date has been pushed to Dec. 16, 2022, because the agency acknowledges that not all UAS manufacturers have had sufficient time to adequately design, develop, test their aircraft, and file a declaration of compliance on or before that September 16 deadline.
In a recently published notice of enforcement policy, the agency concedes that the need for more time by some UAS makers stems from its adoption date of the means of compliance on Aug. 11, 2022, “only slightly more than a month before the Sept. 16, 2022, compliance [deadline] date.”
Accordingly, the FAA said it will “exercise its discretion in determining how to handle any apparent noncompliance, including exercising discretion to not take enforcement action, if appropriate, for any noncompliance that occurs on or before Dec. 16, 2022.”
Meanwhile, UAS operators are reminded that after Sept. 16, 2023, no unmanned aircraft can be flown unless it is equipped with remote ID capability as described in Part 89 or is transmitting ADS-B Out under Part 91. Until then, a person operating an unmanned aircraft without remote identification “must always operate within visual line of sight and in an approved FAA-recognized identification area.”