SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Written comments and suggestions from the public and affected agencies concerning the proposed collection of information are encouraged. Your comments should address one or more of the following four points:

—Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including whether the information will have practical utility;

—Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used;

—Evaluate whether and if so how the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected can be enhanced; and

—Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses.

Abstract: The SAFER SKIES Act, Title LXXXVI of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026, as implemented by the interim final rule codified at 6 CFR part 124 and 28 CFR part 124, extends counter-UAS detection and mitigation authority to State, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement and correctional agencies under 6 U.S.C. 124n(a)(2). This collection covers the coordination, authorization, reporting, and recordkeeping submissions the rule requires, made through the designated Federal C-UAS coordination portal. The current approval was granted on an emergency basis and expires November 30, 2026. This revision requests a standard three-year approval.

Since the emergency clearance, the FBI has revised five instruments in response to experience during initial implementation. The advance notification (C-UAS-AN), operations plan (C-UAS-OPLAN), testing, training, and exercise plan (C-UAS-TTE), policy attestation (C-UAS-ATT), and post-operation report (C-UAS-POR) each collect additional data elements. The principal additions are structured airspace and temporary flight restriction information on the notification, operations plan, and exercise plan; a retroactive filing path for emergency invocations under 6 CFR and 28 CFR 124.9(g) on the notification; Federal Aviation Administration concurrence and frequency restriction information on the operations plan; agency identifying and policy reference information on the attestation; and expanded detection, mitigation, and enforcement outcome fields on the post-operation report.

This revision also re-estimates burden for every instrument. Several per-response estimates are lower than those approved under the emergency clearance even though the instruments collect more data. The revised forms replace free-text entry with structured selections, allow the operations plan to ( printed page 56213) inherit previously entered data from the advance notification so that operational information is entered once, and retrieve known venue airspace data rather than requiring manual entry. The FBI invites comment on these estimates.

Overview of This Information Collection

1. Type of Information Collection: Revision of a currently approved collection.

2. The Title of the Form/Collection: SAFER SKIES State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Counter-UAS Information Collection.

3. The agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of the Department sponsoring the collection: Form numbers: C-UAS-ATT; C-UAS-OPLAN; C-UAS-AN; C-UAS-MAA; C-UAS-NOI; C-UAS-LAD; C-UAS-OAN; C-UAS-POR; C-UAS-ERN; C-UAS-SUM; C-UAS-VSR; C-UAS-ASLN; C-UAS-ARR; C-UAS-TTE. A C-UAS Operator Training and Certification Record (Form C-UAS-OTC) is under development and will be added to this collection by a subsequent submission to OMB before it is deployed. The sponsoring component is the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice.

4. Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as well as the obligation to respond: Affected Public: State, Local, or Tribal Government. Respondents are State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and correctional agencies; territorial agencies are reported within the State, Local, or Tribal Government category. The obligation to respond is required to obtain or retain a benefit for most instruments (the accreditation and certification needed to exercise counter-UAS authority under 6 U.S.C. 124n(a)(2) and 6 CFR and 28 CFR part 124); certain reports and notifications are mandatory under the same authorities, and a small number of instruments are voluntary.

5. An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of time estimated for an average respondent to respond: The estimated number of unduplicated respondents is approximately 1,850 SLTT agencies (approximately 1,500 detection-tier agencies and 350 mitigation-tier agencies).

The time per response varies by instrument, from approximately 5 minutes for feedback on a listed counter-UAS system to approximately 5 hours for initial policy adoption and attestation, which includes developing and adopting the underlying implementation policy. A detection and warning operations plan is estimated at approximately 45 minutes; a mitigation operations plan at approximately 1 hour. These estimates are derived from analysis of the deployed instruments rather than from measured completion times, and the FBI specifically invites comment on their accuracy.

6. An estimate of the total annual burden (in hours) associated with the collection: The estimated total annual burden associated with this collection is 25,314 hours, across approximately 24,355 annual responses, as shown in the table below.

7. An estimate of the total annual cost burden associated with the collection, if applicable: There are no capital, start-up, operation, or maintenance costs associated with this collection. Respondents use existing personnel and equipment and submit electronically through the Federal C-UAS coordination portal at no charge. Counter-UAS systems and related equipment are acquired for the underlying protective mission and are not acquired for purposes of this collection. The estimated total annual cost burden is $0.

( printed page 56214)

Notes to the table: The initial policy attestation line is annualized over the phase-in of the accreditation program, and the annual renewal line covers only agencies that have already attested, so the two lines do not overlap. Advance notification responses exceed mitigation operations plan responses because a single operations plan may support multiple notified operations under a standing operational window or may be incorporated by reference for a subsequent operation under 6 CFR and 28 CFR 124.8. The operational action notification line reflects only notifications made outside the advance notification process; emergency invocations under 6 CFR and 28 CFR 124.9(g) are filed on the advance notification and are not counted twice.

If additional information is required contact: Darwin Arceo, Department Clearance Officer, United States Department of Justice, Justice Management Division, Enterprise Portfolio Management, Two Constitution Square, 145 N Street NE, 4W-218, Washington, DC.

91 FR 56212