ROBBRIEF
The TSA is asking industry to help shape the security program that would sit alongside the FAA's proposed Part 108 rule for routine drone flights beyond the pilot's line of sight.
For years the central question for commercial drone operators wanting to fly beyond the pilot's line of sight was "How do I get a waiver?" Under the FAA's proposed Part 108 rule, that question is becoming "What does a compliant security program look like?" The Transportation Security Administration is now asking industry to help answer it.
TSA published a Federal Register notice on September 4, 2026 soliciting representatives for technical roundtables on security for routine BVLOS operations. Requests to participate are due October 19, 2026.
The roundtables will focus on the organizational, physical, structural, and technological measures operators already use to secure their flights, and on the personnel-vetting and TSA-approved security program requirements the agency is now finalizing in coordination with the FAA. Information gathered is intended to feed "model approaches" operators could adopt to meet the eventual security program, per trade press coverage of the notice.
What is unknown is how representative those roundtables will be. TSA is convening them as closed-door sessions, which trade coverage notes limits public visibility into the discussion. For smaller operators, the practical question is whether a model approach designed around the practices of well-resourced incumbents will fit a small fleet at all, or whether the security half of Part 108 becomes its own gating step on top of the rule's airworthiness and operating requirements.