There's been a lot of talk about Remote ID in the drone space over the past couple of years. The concept is fairly simple: Have drones transmit some sort of identification – think of it as a license plate – that can be accessed by aviation authorities and law enforcement. The goal is to keep airspace safe by ensuring that those in charge of keeping airspace safe for manned aircraft know where drones are. It also offers another tool in cases where someone is flying illegally.

Let's take a closer look.

The Executive Summary

There's a lot of information and legalese in the language. If you'd like to pore through all of it, you can find the Remote ID Final Rule here.

But to make things simpler, we're going to paste the FAA's Executive summary below. There are lots of implications here, both for pilots and manufacturers.

Here's the Summary, verbatim:

Executive Summary
Final Rule on
Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft (Part 89) December 28, 2020

The Remote Identification of Unmanned Aircraft Final Rule is the next incremental step towards further integration of Unmanned Aircraft (UA) in the National Airspace System. In its most basic form, remote identification can be described as a "digital license plate" for UA. Remote ID is necessary to address aviation safety and security issues regarding UA operations in the National Airspace System, and is an essential building block toward safely allowing more complex UA operations.

The final rule establishes a new Part 89 in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The final rule has been sent to the Office of the Federal Register and will become effective 60 days after the publication date in the Federal Register. Publication is expected in January 2021. Compliance timeframes and major provisions are summarized below.