On Sep 14th, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report on the progress to integrate UAS into the national airspace. This report updates an earlier report published in 2008. In addition to evaluating FAA’s progress on UAS integration, the report also addresses several over unresolved issues including security and privacy concerns.
Though progress has been made, GAO concluded that integration of UAS into the national airspace system (NAS) still falls short of aviation safety requirements developed for manned aircraft. The inability of UAS to sense and avoid other aircraft and airborne objects in a manner similar to manned aircraft, vulnerabilities in the command and control of UAS operations, and the lack of technological and operational standards needed to guide safe and consistent performance of UAS were cited as unresolved issues standing in the way of UAS integration.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for regulating the security of all modes of transportation, including non-military UAS. To date, TSA has not yet released information on its efforts to mitigate the security concerns surrounding UAS operations in the NAS. The GAO report recommends the TSA act in this regard.
Privacy concerns relating to the potential increase of government surveillance through the use of UAS technologies and the collection and use of such data have not been addressed. Many believe such governmental actions and the use of this technology potentially violate the constitutional Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizures. It has been suggested that DHS or the Department of Justice (DOJ) might be better positioned to address privacy issues since they generally stem from the operational uses of UAS for government surveillance and law enforcement purposes.
Of additional concern is the potential interruption of the command and control of UAS due to its reliance on unencrypted GPS signals. Recent studies have shown that under controlled conditions UAS operations can be disrupted by masking or faking the GPS data received by the UAS. Though some in the UAS manufacturing community have dismissed this notion, more study and testing is needed to determine of such operational disruption can me met in a more pervasive extent.
GAO provided a draft of its report to officials at the Department of Transportation (DOT/FAA), DHS, DOJ as well as other agencies. DHS and DOJ concurred with the recommendation while DOT officials agreed to consider them.
Click on the link below to read the complete report…
UAS – Measuring Progress… Addressing Concerns
Rich Hanson
AMA Government and Regulatory Affairs