Resources
Practical guidance for building compliant, manufacturable drone systems.
Guides, checklists, technical notes, product documents, and lessons from real engineering and production programs.
Featured resource
Prototype-to-production readiness checklist
The questions a production readiness conversation comes back to, written as a checklist you can run against your own program before you talk to anybody. Sent on request: tell us which one you need and we will send it.
- Drone DfM checklist
- LRIP preparation guide
- NDAA evidence checklist
- Secure drone BOM template
Browse by subject
Where to start
The seven topics this site covers, and where each one is written down. The rest of this page is the compliance collection.
- Engineering
The six stages, what each one produces, and the five ways a drone program stalls.
On the engineering page- Manufacturing and LRIP
How a program moves from a golden sample to repeatable production, and the questions a production readiness conversation comes back to.
On the manufacturing page- Compliance and supply chain
What NDAA compliance requires, where each part comes from, how a certification plan is put together, and what a signed firmware chain is for.
Four technical notes on this page- Testing and quality
What gets inspected and tested on a low-rate build, and the record each step leaves behind.
On the manufacturing page- Product integration
What it takes to fit one of our products into an aircraft you already fly, and who does which part.
On the products page- Fleet operations
Fleet intelligence, telemetry, remote updates and operational data, from prototype testing through deployment.
On the MoonTower Analytics page- Program management
How a program is staged and what each stage has to produce before the next one starts, on the engineering side and at the production gates.
On the engineering page
Resource library
What a compliance package contains
Every resource on this site, in one shape. Compliance is a business line of its own, not a box to tick at the end, and four of the subjects behind it are worth more than a name, so they have a page each.
Resource types: guide, checklist, technical note, case study, product datasheet, video, webinar, and external reference. Everything below is a technical note; the others are what this library will carry as it is written.
- Type
- Technical note
- Reading time
- Under 1 min read
- Last revised
- Updated 5 August 2026
What NDAA compliance means for a build
A drone is not compliant because a supplier says so. It is compliant because what is inside it, and who built it, can be shown.
Read it- Type
- Technical note
- Reading time
- Under 1 min read
- Last revised
- Updated 5 August 2026
Country of origin and the bill of materials
The claim that matters is not where a drone was assembled. It is where each part in it came from.
Read it- Type
- Technical note
- Reading time
- Under 1 min read
- Last revised
- Updated 5 August 2026
What an FCC certification plan covers
A commercial product that transmits generally has to be authorized before it can be marketed, and that is a hardware decision, not a late one.
Read it- Type
- Technical note
- Reading time
- Under 1 min read
- Last revised
- Updated 5 August 2026
SBOM, secure boot and signed updates
A software bill of materials is a list of what is inside the software, and it is becoming as ordinary a request as the hardware one.
Read it
The package itself is the list below. Ask us for any of these and we will send it.
- NDAA compliance matrix
- Approved vendor list
- BOM country-of-origin tracking
- Supplier-attestation checklist
- FCC certification plan
- Cybersecurity architecture
- SBOM
- Secure boot and signed firmware update process
- Manufacturing test plan
- Quality inspection plan
- Field test plan
- Customer compliance packet checklist
These are working documents, not legal advice
Everything named here is an operational resource, not a legal one. These are operational resources, not legal determinations: none of it is a certification or a statement that any particular program meets a requirement. Your own counsel and contracting authority decide that.
Context
External reporting and policy context
Other people’s reporting and policy, not ours. It is here for context, and it is the last thing on the page for the same reason.
- CEPA
Breaking Free From China's Drone Ecosystem is Harder Than You Think
Breaking the dependence is harder than swapping a supplier
- AP
Many Americans have come to rely on Chinese-made drones.
The reliance reaches ordinary buyers, not only defense programs
- GAO
Defense Industrial Base: Actions Needed to Address Risks Posed by Dependence on Foreign Suppliers
Foreign supplier dependence is a readiness question, not only a cost one
- DroneLife
Civil Liberties Groups Warn FAA Drone Rule Could Restrict Journalism
Even the rules on who may fly are contested
- Fortune
Drone Startup Abruptly Shuts Down Despite $34 Million in Pre-Orders
- PCWorld
GoPro issues complete recall for Karma, its first-ever drone
- TechCrunch
Drone startup Airware crashes, shuts down after burning $118M
Product documentation
What exists for a product, and where it stands
One place for the documents that travel with a product. Each is available on request rather than as a public download, and what can be shared depends on the product and its status.
- Datasheets
- Specifications per product, to the level published for it. The speed controllers have none yet and say so.
- Integration guides
- What it takes to fit a product into an airframe you already fly, written per integration.
- Interface-control documents
- The electrical, mechanical and protocol interfaces a product presents, agreed before an integration starts.
- Quick-start guides
- Getting a unit powered, configured and talking, for the products that have shipped to somebody.
- Release notes
- What changed in a firmware or software release, recorded per version through MoonTower.
- Support information
- Who to reach, what is covered, and what has been agreed for the programme the product is on.
Request a document
Looking for a document that is not public?
Datasheets, interface details and compliance evidence are at different stages for different products, and some are not written yet. The form asks for the document needed, your company, a work email and the intended use, and we will say what can be shared and when.
Before you write
Please do not send controlled unclassified information (CUI), export-controlled technical data, sensitive drawings or anything else your program restricts through the form. Tell us the shape of what you need instead. An NDA and an approved secure file-transfer process are available after qualification, and we will arrange both before you send any of it.
If you are not sure whether something is controlled, treat it as though it is and tell us in general terms instead. We will set up the agreement and the transfer before anything else.