Connecticut Wired a Drone Purchasing Rule Into Public Contracts

What starts on October 1 in Connecticut Connecticut's Public Act 25-1 has been taking effect in stages since 2025, and the next stage lands on 1 October 2026.

Under section 5, no state agency or town may buy a small UAS built or put together by a covered foreign entity. The same provision reaches further than a public buyer might expect: a person who contracts with a state agency or municipality may not buy such an aircraft under that contract, and money from state or federal sources, whether it arrives through a contract, a cooperative agreement or a grant, cannot be spent on one. Covered foreign entity is defined broadly. It captures China and Russia, entities controlled from either, and anyone listed on the Consolidated Screening List or the Entity List. That second half turns compliance into a screening exercise rather than an opinion about a brand.

The dates, in order Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection purchases stopped in October 2025. Purchases by other state agencies and municipalities stop on 1 October 2026. Operation of covered aircraft stops later, on 1 October 2027 for that department and on 1 October 2028 for other agencies, towns and their contractors. Deals signed before each date are left alone.

After the operating bans begin, a department head or chief can authorize a covered aircraft for an emergency, for counter drone work or for a criminal investigation, but a written statement has to be filed within a week, and it can be released under the state's public records law.

The section that applies to every pilot Section 7 has been in force since 1 October 2025 and does not care who your client is. Nobody may fly at less than 250 feet over a listed facility, or closer than 100 horizontal feet to one, without approval from whoever owns or administers it, and a separate clause bars using a drone to observe or gather information about such a site.

The list is long. It runs to generating plants and substations, water and sewage works, dams, communications sites, harbours and rail yards, fuel depots and chemical plants, prisons, government offices, hospitals, fire and police buildings, and bridges owned by the state or a town. Most of them qualify only when fenced or posted against drones. Limited access highways, and tunnels bored through them, count either way. The exemptions are narrower than they sound. A commercial flight operating under FAA authorization is excused from the height and distance limits only as far as the task demands, and the clause about observing or gathering information still applies to it. People on duty for a government body, along with utility staff, are outside the section altogether.

What this means for a contractor's fleet

Two things change for teams that work for public clients. The funding source becomes part of the equipment plan, because a town contract can constrain a purchase even when the aircraft is yours. And a substation or a water plant on the job list becomes a permission question rather than a siting question, which moves a written approval from the facility operator into the mission file. The fleet consequence is a two tier problem. If you fly public work in Connecticut and private work elsewhere, the answer is rarely to buy two of everything. It is to know which aircraft can be deployed on which contract, and to hold the asset records that prove it when a contract is audited, because the purchase ban reads the aircraft, not the invoice.

Takeaway

Before your next New England award, check the funding source written into the contract and the facility list along the route, then put either the operator's written approval or an alternate siting decision in the flight plan before the crew mobilizes.