The most significant expansion of UAS operational authority since Part 107 is working its way through the FAA rulemaking process. Part 108 — the pending framework for commercial and government beyond visual line of sight operations — will change what state agencies, federal programs, and emergency response organizations can legally do with unmanned aircraft.
Most procurement offices are not ready for it.
What BVLOS Currently Requires
Under current rules, UAS operations beyond visual line of sight require an FAA waiver under 14 CFR Part 107. Waivers are time-consuming, specific to the operation, difficult to scale, and operationally restrictive. Each new operational area effectively requires a new waiver application. This has limited BVLOS to well-resourced programs with dedicated regulatory affairs capacity — not the average state emergency management office or federal land management agency.
The practical result is that most government UAS programs operate under visual line of sight constraints even when their missions — wildfire monitoring, coastal surveillance, pipeline inspection, search and rescue — would be substantially more effective without that restriction.
What Part 108 Changes
Part 108 is expected to create a framework for routine BVLOS operations that does not require individual waivers. Operators and platforms meeting defined standards — related to detect and avoid capability, communication link reliability, airspace integration, and operator certification — would be authorized to conduct BVLOS operations without case-by-case FAA approval.
The specific requirements are still being finalized, but the direction is clear: Part 108 will authorize BVLOS as an operational baseline for qualifying programs rather than as a limited exception. This is the same regulatory evolution that Part 107 represented for visual line of sight operations a decade ago. The effect on what government UAS programs can accomplish will be comparably significant.
The Readiness Problem
Here is the issue that procurement and program leadership need to address now rather than after the rule drops.
When Part 108 takes effect, the programs that benefit immediately will be those with BVLOS-capable platforms already in operation, operators who have trained for extended range missions, and organizational policies that can accommodate the new operational authority without requiring extensive infrastructure rebuilding.
Programs that have procured visual line of sight platforms or trained exclusively for short-range operations will face a technology and training gap at precisely the moment when the regulatory barrier has been removed. The rulemaking schedule is not published to accommodate procurement timelines.
Platform Capability Is Not Optional
Not every UAS is capable of legal BVLOS operations under any regulatory framework. Platforms operating at BVLOS ranges require reliable beyond-line-of-sight communications links, detect and avoid capabilities sufficient to mitigate collision risk without the operator’s visual observation, and sufficient endurance to make BVLOS operations operationally practical.
Platforms procured specifically for visual line of sight operations — often smaller, lighter, shorter-endurance platforms — will not suddenly become BVLOS-capable when Part 108 takes effect. The regulatory authorization and the platform capability are separate requirements that both must be met simultaneously.
Procurement decisions made today should account for both current operational requirements and the BVLOS operational authority that Part 108 will enable. A platform that cannot support BVLOS operations is a platform with a limited operational ceiling regardless of what the regulation permits.
Operator Certification Will Matter
Part 108 is expected to include enhanced operator certification requirements for BVLOS operations. The exact structure is not finalized, but the direction is toward demonstrated competency beyond the current Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate for operations conducted at extended ranges.
Programs that begin BVLOS-relevant training now — extended range mission planning, communications link management, airspace coordination for automated operations — are building the organizational capacity that will be required to operationalize Part 108 authority when it becomes available. Programs that wait for the rule to drop before beginning training will face a lead time problem.
The State Agency Calculus
State agencies — forestry and fire, transportation, environmental management, emergency management — stand to benefit disproportionately from Part 108 if their programs are positioned correctly.
Wildfire operations in particular are constrained by current BVLOS requirements in ways that Part 108 would substantially address. Aerial reconnaissance of fire perimeters, infrared monitoring of heat sources in smoke-obscured terrain, and coordinated aerial surveillance across extended fire lines all benefit from BVLOS operational authority that is currently unavailable without a waiver. The same pattern applies to flood monitoring, coastal surveys, and search and rescue operations across large geographic areas.
State agencies that have built NDAA-compliant, BVLOS-capable fleets before Part 108 takes effect will be positioned to put that authority to immediate operational use. Agencies that have not will be rebuilding procurement packages at the same time they are trying to operationalize a new regulatory framework.
The Practical Guidance
Part 108 rulemaking is in advanced stages. The timeline for a final rule is not published, but the regulatory direction is established. Program offices evaluating UAS platforms now should treat BVLOS capability as a baseline requirement, not a future option.
That means procuring platforms with the endurance, communications, and detect and avoid architecture to support extended range operations. It means building operator training programs with BVLOS mission profiles rather than optimizing exclusively for short-range visual operations. And it means reviewing agency operational policy now so that legal counsel and operations leadership can move quickly when the regulatory authority is in place rather than beginning that review after the rule drops.
The window between now and Part 108’s effective date is an opportunity. Programs that use it will have a meaningful operational advantage on the day the rule takes effect.