Compliance & Provenance

Documentation the procurement office already expects.

The ESC is a covered component under every major federal drone compliance regime. Lirith builds to those regimes from the first schematic and ships every unit with the paperwork that makes them real.

// Regulatory Framework

The laws that shape this market.

01
NDAA §848
FY20
Section 848 of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act prohibits the DoD from operating or procuring unmanned aircraft systems and components manufactured in covered foreign countries. It established the baseline restriction on Chinese drone components across DoD programs.
Lirith Status
Compliant
02
NDAA §817
FY23
Section 817 of the FY2023 NDAA extended and tightened covered-component restrictions and clarified prohibited sources for flight controllers, ground control systems, radios, and the electronics that drive them — including ESCs.
Lirith Status
Compliant
03
ASDA
American Security Drone Act · FY24
The ASDA, enacted in the FY2024 NDAA, extends covered-UAS restrictions across the full federal government — not just DoD. Federal agencies cannot procure or operate covered UAS, with an operational ban taking effect in .
Lirith Status
Compliant
04
EO 13981
Executive Order ·
Executive Order 13981 reinforces restrictions on the use of foreign-manufactured components in federal technology and defense supply chains, directing agencies to prioritize domestically sourced hardware for national security applications — including unmanned systems and their critical subsystems.
Lirith Status
Compliant
05
Blue UAS
DIU Framework
The Defense Innovation Unit's Blue UAS Framework is the pre-vetted list of cyber-secure, policy-compliant drones and components cleared for DoD procurement. Listing requires an independent supply-chain and cybersecurity review by DIU in coordination with DCMA.
Lirith Status
Listing in progress
// Traceability

Every component, to its source.

Every Lirith component is sourced from an approved, documented vendor, with country-of-origin recorded at the part-number level and lot-level traceability from assembly through shipment. The BOM is not an afterthought — it is the compliance record.

Component-Level Provenance
Documented per BOM line
Approved Vendor List
Maintained & audited
Lot Traceability
Assembly through ship date
Substitutions
Customer notification required
Change Control
Rev-controlled, documented
// Buy American

A qualifying end product, by design.

Lirith ESCs are designed, assembled, coated, tested, and packaged in the United States. We build to the Buy American Act's qualifying-end-product threshold, and we structure our BOM and manufacturing flow to support the Trade Agreements Act designations our customers need when they compete for federal contracts.

Our customers include drone OEMs bidding on federal programs under FAR 52.225-series clauses. We understand what those clauses require because we wrote our processes to satisfy them.

// What's at Stake

What counts as a covered component?

NDAA §848 defines covered components explicitly. If any of these parts in your drone trace back to a covered foreign entity, your platform fails federal procurement requirements — regardless of final assembly location or brand name on the package.

The component that most frequently creates compliance failures in Group 1 and Group 2 UAS programs is the ESC. Nearly every hobbyist and commercial ESC in volume production today is manufactured in China.

Full definition in Glossary →
Explicitly Listed Covered Components
  • Electronic Speed Controllers (ESCs) — motor drive electronics
  • Flight Controllers — autopilot and stabilization hardware
  • Ground Control Stations — operator interface hardware
  • Radios and Communication Modules — data links and C2
  • Cameras and Imaging Sensors — EO/IR payloads
  • Data Transmission Devices — storage and relay modules
  • Operating Software — firmware embedded in any of the above
Why ESCs Are the Chokepoint

An ESC sits between the battery and every motor. It controls thrust, monitors power draw, and can report telemetry to the flight controller. A compromised ESC could desync a motor on command, drain a battery, or exfiltrate flight data over a telemetry channel. For OEMs building for federal programs, every ESC in the BOM requires a non-covered-entity attestation — and most cannot provide one for Chinese-manufactured parts.

The Lirith QuadDrive 80A is purpose-built to solve this. Every component traces to a non-covered-entity vendor, and we provide the documentation to prove it.

// Documentation Package

What ships with every program.

Customers receive the full compliance package after an evaluation agreement is in place.

DOC · 01

CoC — Certificate of Conformance

Signed attestation of NDAA §848, §817, ASDA FY24, and EO 13981 conformance per unit, per lot.

DOC · 02

CoO — Country of Origin

Formal country-of-origin determination for Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act evaluation.

DOC · 03

NDAA Compliance Documentation

Full bill-of-materials breakdown with manufacturer, part number, and country-of-origin for every component line item.

DOC · 04

Performance & Test Results

Lot-level electrical test reports, thermal and environmental qualification data, and quality acceptance records.

DOC · 05

Traceability Statements

Supply-chain attestation covering sourcing, assembly, and manufacturing provenance from raw material to ship date.

// Procurement

Compliance shouldn't slow your program.

Talk to our team about evaluation units, qualification support, and the documentation your procurement office already needs.