Come February 23rd, you will need to display the registration number on the outside of your drone. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has posted the rule on a Federal Register preview site.

The agency said that the directive is aimed at terrorism fears, specifically ‘the risk a concealed explosive device poses to first responders who must open a compartment to find the small unmanned aircraft’s registration number.’

FAA has also loosen restrictions on flights during nights and over populated areas. Owning and flying a drone is become less and less fun as there are so many vague rules around them. FAA is doing an incredible job at making it easier for people to fly drones.

That said, at times many counties and cities make their own drone rules which make it challenging for drone operators to fly their drones in such areas.

We can’t fault authorities as there are many irresponsible drone operators that fly their drones in restricted areas which could pose threat to lives. We need to come up with solutions that help responsible drone operators while discouraging irresponsible behavior.

The drone registration program was made mandatory way back in 2015. A court, however, struck down the legislation in May 2017. Afterwards when the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018 became law, regulations related to registrations were reinforced later that year.

The new rule should make it easy for law enforcement and security officers to identify drone owners faster.

The FAA said that officials from other agencies were concerned about “the risk a concealed explosive device poses to first responders who must open a compartment to find the small unmanned aircraft’s registration number.”

(Swapnil Bhartiya contributed to this story)