DHS report finds Blue-List drones struggle with GPS, link reliability in Manhattan tests

TLDR

• A new DHS Science and Technology Directorate report tested five Blue-List drones with 26 public safety pilots across rural Texas, Miami, and Hudson Yards in Manhattan.
• Three of five aircraft, the Ascent Spirit, Freefly Astro, and Teal 2, were excluded from Hudson Yards scoring after failing to hold position or launch without GPS lock.
• The Skydio X10D scored highest overall (4.0 in Miami, 3.7 at Hudson Yards) but still lost connection under 100 feet in some tests; the Parrot ANAFI USA GOV scored worst on link reliability, with one dropped connection causing a flyaway.
• Tested costs ranged from $13,964 to $56,195 per unit; cost was tracked but not a scored criterion.
• Chinese-made "covered nation" drones were flown alongside the Blue List at Hudson Yards, but their scores were withheld from the public 47-page report, available only to agencies who contact the lab directly. So far, only DroneXL has reported this story.

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, through the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL), has published a comparative assessment of five Blue UAS-listed drones tested by 26 public safety pilots from 13 states, according to DroneXL.¹ The 47-page report, numbered SAVER-T-R-39, covers three testing rounds run between June 2024 and July 2025: rural Texas first, then Miami in November, then Hudson Yards in Manhattan last, with familiarization flights held at Fort Totten in Queens.¹

Evaluators, drawn from agencies including the NYPD, FDNY, Boston Fire, LAPD, Michigan State Police, Texas DPS, the Coast Guard, and Customs and Border Protection, scored aircraft on a 1-to-5 scale, where 1 means a drone "met none of the evaluator's expectations" and 5 means it "exceeded them."¹ Three of the five aircraft were excluded from Hudson Yards scoring outright: the Ascent AeroSystems Spirit couldn't hold position on insufficient satellite reception, the Freefly Astro (which had scored 3.5 in Miami) failed to enter position mode and drifted, and the Teal 2 couldn't launch without a GPS lock, with Remote ID failures also causing a roughly 10-minute delay at Fort Totten.¹

Of the two aircraft that were scored at Hudson Yards, the Parrot ANAFI USA GOV performed worst: its command-and-control link scored 1.8 out of 5 and latency scored 1.7, with connection lost as close as 50 feet from launch on one occasion, resulting in a flyaway.¹ The Skydio X10D scored highest overall, 4.0 in Miami and 3.7 at Hudson Yards, credited to fast deployment, intuitive controls, and its NightSense infrared lighting kit, though some evaluators still lost connection under 100 feet and between buildings, and redeployment took up to three minutes.¹ Tested unit costs ranged from $13,964 (Parrot) to $56,195 (Ascent Spirit); the Skydio X10D cost $28,382. Cost was tracked but explicitly not a scored criterion.¹

Chinese-made "covered nation" drones, understood to mean Chinese-manufactured aircraft though DJI and Autel are not named, were flown alongside the Blue List at Hudson Yards for comparison, but DHS excluded their scores from the public report, citing them as available only to public safety agencies who request them directly from the lab. The report's executive summary reportedly describes a "large" capability gap between the covered-nation drones and the Blue List aircraft, without specifying which direction the gap runs; DHS frames the assessment as evaluating operator experience only, not national security risk.¹

Why it matters: the report itself acknowledges Blue List status doesn't guarantee operational performance, and Blue-listed drones aren't necessarily free of Chinese-sourced components either. The Skydio X10D reportedly shipped with only one battery instead of three from October 2024, timing DroneXL links to a Chinese battery-supplier sanction. This story is currently reported by DroneXL alone; no independent second outlet has been found covering the report as of this writing.¹