On April 30, 2026 NextNav filed comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding in support of President Trump’s national strategy of American drone dominance. In NextNav’s filing, the company discussed the role its 5G-powered 3D PNT solution could play to improve the availability and continuity of low-altitude 3D positioning, delivering widescale horizontal and vertical location information to support unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations.
The filing also highlights how NextNav’s solution could support wide-area counter-UAS monitoring utilizing the same network signaling that enables PNT.
From the filing:
NextNav Inc. (“NextNav”) shares the Commission’s conviction that the time is right to take aggressive action to implement President Trump’s policy of American drone dominance and airspace sovereignty. NextNav encourages the Commission to explore multiple ways it can support drone dominance, including by updating outdated regulations that limit the current utility of licensed spectrum to support unmanned aircraft systems (“UAS”) and Counter-UAS capabilities. NextNav also encourages the Commission to streamline its rules to facilitate rapid testing and evaluation of UAS-related capabilities across spectrum bands.
The need for effective Counter-UAS monitoring and detection is increasingly acute. The urgent need is underscored by recent events. For instance, in March 2026, a drone incursion occurred around Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, preventing aircraft operations over multiple days. According to public reports, twelve to fifteen drones were observed for multiple nights operating over sensitive, restricted areas—including the flight line—often for as long as four hours at a time. Public reporting indicates that the origin and flight paths of those drones remain unknown. This incident and similar reported incursions, including hundreds of sightings over U.S. military installations in recent years, illustrate a persistent gap in continuous, pervasive, and wide-area monitoring of low-altitude flying objects.
With swift Commission action, NextNav is primed to rapidly deliver dual-use capabilities that directly support President Trump’s drone-dominance objectives. Dual-use, market-based technologies can provide lower cost, nearer-term availability, and more efficient service delivery for government users. Modernizing the Commission’s rules for the Lower 900 MHz band to enable 5G-based 3D positioning, navigation, and timing (“PNT”) would unlock not only resilient 3D PNT to support UAS operations, but also a greenfield low-altitude sensing capability for wide-area UAS and Counter-UAS monitoring to support both commercial and government operations, utilizing the same 5G-standard Positioning Reference Signals (“PRS”) necessary to deliver accurate PNT information.
See the filing here.