February
3rd, 2012
by Steven Aftergood
A House-Senate
conference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use of
civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or “drones,” in U.S. airspace.
The
pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary
of Transportation to develop within nine months “a comprehensive plan to safely
accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national
airspace system.”
“The plan… shall provide for the safe
integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace
system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”
The conference bill, which still awaits final
passage, also calls for establishment of UAS test ranges in cooperation with
NASA and the Department of Defense, expanded use of UAS in the Arctic region,
development of guidance for the operation of public unmanned aircraft systems,
and new safety research to assess the risk of “catastrophic failure of the
unmanned aircraft that would endanger other aircraft in the national airspace
system.”
The
Department of Defense is pursuing its own domestic UAS activities for training
purposes and “domestic operations,” according to a 2007 DoD-FAA memorandum of
agreement. (“Army Foresees Expanded Use of Drones in U.S. Airspace,” Secrecy News, January 19, 2012.)
Update: In the recently enacted FY2012 National
Defense Authorization Act (section 1097), Congress mandated that “the
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall establish a program
to integrate unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system at six
test ranges.” This new test range program is supposed to be established within
180 days.
