February3rd, 2012
by Steven Aftergood
A House-Senateconference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use ofcivilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or “drones,” in U.S. airspace.
Thepending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretaryof Transportation to develop within nine months “a comprehensive plan to safelyaccelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the nationalairspace system.”
“The plan… shall provide for the safeintegration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspacesystem as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”
The conference bill, which still awaits finalpassage, also calls for establishment of UAS test ranges in cooperation withNASA 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 theunmanned aircraft that would endanger other aircraft in the national airspacesystem.”
TheDepartment of Defense is pursuing its own domestic UAS activities for trainingpurposes and “domestic operations,” according to a 2007 DoD-FAA memorandum ofagreement. (“Army Foresees Expanded Use of Drones in U.S. Airspace,” Secrecy News, January 19, 2012.)
Update: In the recently enacted FY2012 NationalDefense Authorization Act (section 1097), Congress mandated that “theAdministrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall establish a programto integrate unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system at sixtest ranges.” This new test range program is supposed to be established within180 days.
No comments:
Post a Comment