U.S. drone owners would be required to display registration number markings on the body of their drones under a new Federal Aircraft Administration regulation.

The new rules were posted today on a preview website for the Federal Register spotted by Bloomberg and would take effect starting Feb. 23.

The FAA is said to be taking the action as agencies such as the FBI and the Homeland Security Department have raised concerns “regarding the risk a concealed explosive device poses to first responders who must open a compartment to find the small unmanned aircraft’s registration number.”

This isn’t the first time the FAA has made or tried to enforce registration markings on drones. It first attempted to force registration on pilots of drones weighing over a half-pound in November 2015 as a backdoor method of drone registration.

Under those rules, the pilot registration number would have had to have been displayed on a drone. The law was subsequently struck down by the Federal Court in May 2017 as being in breach of a law that states that the FAA “may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft.”

That law was amended with the FAA then enforcing drone registration but not, until now, the requirement that the registration number be shown on a drone itself.

The move comes as a somewhat surprise given that the U.S. government had been loosening drone regulations. On Jan. 14 it was reported that the Trump administration had proposed new rules for flying drones that would allow the devices to be flown at night and over people without the need for special permission.

In contrast, other countries are heading in the opposite direction. In December, Gatwick Airport in the U.K. was shut down for several days after rogue drones were claimed to seen near its main runway, resulting in the U.K. government making drone laws stricter.

A similar though shorter incident involving a drone shutting down an airport occurred at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport Jan. 23.

Photo: Pxhere