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UAV
Event Focuses On Easing Domestic Rules
WASHINGTON —
Speakers at last week’s AUVSI Unmanned System
Program Review conference spotlighted the need
to ease restrictions on UAV use in domestic U.S.
airspace and urged the crowd to pressure
Congress to take action.
Jim Williams, who heads the Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Integration Office at the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), told the audience
Feb. 13 that the market for domestic drone use
could be worth $90 billion over the next decade.
Responding to frustrated industry
representatives, Williams pledged that proposed
rules would be released by the end of the year.
“I know that the rulemaking process is slow, and
no one is more frustrated by that than me,”
Williams said.
Peter Bale, chairman of the Association for
Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, told
those in the crowd to lobby their
representatives, and singled out April 9 as an
industry day on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee and the head of
the House Unmanned Systems Caucus, taped a video
message to the crowd and pledged to continue his
push to open domestic skies for unmanned
vehicles.
“The 47 bipartisan members of this caucus will
continue to work the appropriate federal
agencies to ensure an efficient and
constitutional integration process,” he said.
The focus of the conference was on the speakers,
with only a handful of companies presenting
their wares during networking breaks. Several
companies emphasized lighter, more compact
products.
Among them were Gilat Satellite Networks, which
presented its UAV family of satellite
communications terminals. Although only 22
pounds, the system can transmit more than 1 Mbps
from a UAV. A spokesman said the system is ready
to deploy “anywhere” in the world and noted that
Lockheed Martin has purchased five of the UAV
units.
Crystal Group showcased its line of “rugged”
servers and monitors, made from aircraft-grade
aluminum. Marketing Manager K. Jakelyn Coon said
the systems are designed for use in everything
from the space station to foreign deployments.
Maryland-based UAV Solutions featured its new
lines of UAV systems weighing 25 pounds or less.
That included the quadcopter Allerion 25 model,
which business development manager Kasey Cooper
described as simple to customize, with easily
swapped payloads for military, police and first
responders.
In addition to industry, Pentagon
representatives were present.
Col. Bill Tart, director of the Remotely Piloted
Aircraft (RPA) Capabilities Division of the Air
Force, told the gathering that industry needs to
be smarter with how it talks to the Hill and the
Pentagon about unmanned vehicles, especially in
the face of sequestration.
“The numbers are going to get smaller. They just
are,” Tart said, even without sequestration.
“But what you have to come in with is, ‘This is
the requirement that this will fill, and we’re
the best ones to fill it because x, y and z.’”
What those requirements will be is still being
decided at the Pentagon, but Tart laid out a
preview of what he would be looking for. “Link
surety and advanced encryption is a gotta have,”
he said. “That’s a safety-of-flight issue, and
it’s a solid intelligence and weapon issue.”
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