diff --git a/thread/tests/unit/Android.bp b/thread/tests/unit/Android.bp
index 3365cd0..9404d1b 100644
--- a/thread/tests/unit/Android.bp
+++ b/thread/tests/unit/Android.bp
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
         "mts-tethering",
     ],
     static_libs: [
+        "androidx.test.rules",
         "frameworks-base-testutils",
         "framework-connectivity-pre-jarjar",
         "framework-connectivity-t-pre-jarjar",
diff --git a/thread/tests/unit/src/com/android/server/thread/ThreadNetworkControllerServiceTest.java b/thread/tests/unit/src/com/android/server/thread/ThreadNetworkControllerServiceTest.java
index 52a9dd9..cf6eb44 100644
--- a/thread/tests/unit/src/com/android/server/thread/ThreadNetworkControllerServiceTest.java
+++ b/thread/tests/unit/src/com/android/server/thread/ThreadNetworkControllerServiceTest.java
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@
 import android.provider.Settings;
 import android.util.AtomicFile;
 
+import androidx.test.annotation.UiThreadTest;
 import androidx.test.core.app.ApplicationProvider;
 import androidx.test.ext.junit.runners.AndroidJUnit4;
 import androidx.test.filters.SmallTest;
@@ -97,6 +98,12 @@
 /** Unit tests for {@link ThreadNetworkControllerService}. */
 @SmallTest
 @RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
+// This test doesn't really need to run on the UI thread, but @Before and @Test annotated methods
+// need to run in the same thread because there are code in {@code ThreadNetworkControllerService}
+// checking that all its methods are running in the thread of the handler it's using. This is due
+// to a bug in TestLooper that it executes all tasks on the current thread rather than the thread
+// associated to the backed Looper object.
+@UiThreadTest
 public final class ThreadNetworkControllerServiceTest {
     // A valid Thread Active Operational Dataset generated from OpenThread CLI "dataset new":
     // Active Timestamp: 1