The President wants it to happen. The guys on the ground want it to happen. And their bosses in DC want it to happen. But that doesn’t mean the bureaucrats are going to let unmanned spy planes start patrolling the southern border.
In a speech in El Paso earlier this week, President Bush said he wanted more cash for border patrol technologies, including drones. Border patrol agents — at least the ones I visited — thought the robo-planes did a world of good during, when they briefly had them. (And, with millions illegally entering the country every year, these guys could use all the help they can get.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently bought a new Predator B drone to help its agents out. But that may be the only unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) the Federal Aviation Administration lets the border guards use, GovExec reports.
After more than two years of negotiations, the Homeland Security Department’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection Directorate recently finalized a deal with the FAA to fly one drone in the Tucson, Ariz., area.
CBP also issued an environmental impact study in September that helps clear the way for an expansion of UAV operations from the western corner of Arizona to the eastern corner of Texas, but the agency still needs to work out a deal with the FAA to fly the drones outside restricted military airspace. Because of the restrictions, CBP officials have been forced to deploy a fleet of Blackhawk helicopters to patrol the rest of the southern border.
A CBP spokesman said Wednesday that the agency has recently received the “green light” to buy its second UAV early next year and plans to deploy the drone in the Tucson area until CBP and FAA officials reach additional agreements.
“We have to talk and ask for permission, but FAA is very strict,” he said. “We’re looking at what we can do to get exemptions” from FAA regulations or maximize the requirements set by FAA for UAVs.
Drone manufacturers, and handlers, have been tangling for years with the FAA over when and where UAVs can fly here at home. Here’s a snippet from an article I wrote for the Times three years ago, which to the best of knowledge, is still essentially true:
Jim Brass, a colleague of Mr. Herwitz at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., sought to use a drone last November to look at a forest fire in the San Gabriel Mountains, north of Los Angeles.
But the Federal Aviation Administration refused to let the drone fly. Getting to the fire, a ”controlled burn” begun by the Forest Service to thin trees, would have involved flying through the approach to the suburban airport in Ontario, Calif., and the F.A.A. did not want a drone in crowded airspace.
It is a common problem for civilian drones. A small, piloted airplane can operate pretty much anywhere with little or no notification. But flying a drone means filing for a certificate of authorization, a narrowly drawn permission slip from the F.A.A. to roam a small strip of the skies. Getting the certificate takes months.
”We aren’t pursuing commercial applications over America because U.A.V. flights are so restricted by the F.A.A.,” Mr. Sliwa said, reflecting a common approach in the industry. The agency has yet to issue minimum standards for the drones’ hardware and software. There are no guidelines on how the drones’ human operators should be trained.
Okay, obviously you don’t want to let pilotless planes roam the skies with no supervision. But, c’mon… it’s been three years. It can’t be that hard to carve out some space for these drones.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Good Morning Folks,
I know many of you are impressed by the technology of the UAV,s and it is impressive. Sensors can read a hand of cards from 20K ft. and that is a problem.
The Patroit Act has eroded many of our traditional American Freedoms do we need this level of surveilance in the skys above us.
Everyone is going to say well they are going to only us it on our Southern border, don’t bet on it. Also there is the matter of who has access to the information Predators would gather.
It’s one thing flying over the country side and seeing who is nude sunbathing or what ever other activies that take place in backyards, hey put your clothes on or go inside if you don’t want to be on a world wide link but what about commerical snooping. Do Contractors want the IRS counting the number of Backholes they have in their yard or an auto dealer wanting the cars on his lot counted from above. I think not.
Now I know most of you will say, well that just won’t happen, not in the United States. Don’t bet on it, overhead surveilance with cheap platforms in the hand of domestic Government Agencies will be just to much of a temptation.
Lets keep Predators and it siblings off shore and watching other people.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Byron,
Your the one that needs to watch his bets if you think cheap and easy domestic surveillance is not here and getting better and better all the time despite the fact that the FAA is suppressing UAVs domestic use. Satellites imaging, high and low flying manned aircraft and remote controlled aircraft falling below the weight and size levels to be regulated by the FAA are being used all over the place. These technologies are improving all the time and unless the FAA stops suppressing the UAV they will just pass it up in usefulness and technology due to customer demand (Domestic is totally going to outstrip military in no time) and the FAA will be able to do nothing about it.
What makes sense is for the FAA to allow the use in a reasonable and regulated manner in order to have some oversight and control (Even if it is only in the short term) while allowing govt. agencies to be more effective while saving money.
I disagree with Mr. Skinner. Clearly the government should know how many blackholes someone might have in their yard, becouse even one blackhole in the hands of terrorists would be too much.
It could swallow the whole panet!
The problem that the FAA has has thre facets.
1. The FAA does not have the equipment and personnel to monitor unmanned flights along the borders. Their authorized workforce and equipment is barely able to handle the traffic load they currently handle.
2. Training and communications with the operators of the drones. FAA can reasonably demand a level of training of the operators and the ability to make immediate contact with the operator of any given drone. FAA orders about flight path must take precedence over all other orders, since they are always given for flight safety reasons.
3. Ability to track and identify the unmanned air vehicles requires onboard radar beacons on the UAV to respond with flight identification and altitude. FAA cannot meet its air safety separation requirements without being able to locate the drones on radar and know their altitude at all times. UAVs are very small radar targets, very difficult to detect and track. That is an advantage on the battlefield, but a serious problem in civilian airspace.
These requirements are not mere bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. They affect the safety of flight of all commercial and military flights in the vicinity of the U. S. borders, particularly international flights. The FAA is correct to require that these problems be solved before the UAVs operate along the border. Their job is flight safety.
This bit about UAVs needing advance clearance, etc.? Not just a US issue. It’s also an issue in Iraq:
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2005/11/field-report-on-raven-shadow-uavs-from-the-101st/index.php
I think that with thhe FAA vs DHS/Fed Gov’t on the UAV issue, the FAA needs to be beaten with a stick and told how it’s going to be.
I for one would love to see more use of UAVs domestically to help augment that human assets in all gov’t agencies.
Guess I’m one of the weirdos who aren’t afraid of my government.
Eric the Dread0395
Unlike a military battlefield, drones have to coexist with licensed, piloted aircraft that can be talking with a controller or may choose to not to be under positive control. Pilots have defined rules for aircraft avoidance, frequencies for notification and alerts, transponder codes to feed TCAS (traffic Collision Avoidance Systems) and the Mark-1 Eyeball. Drones lack the oversight and rules needed to safely navigate in congested airspace alongside real flesh/blood pilots.
For those who opt for carving out airspace for drones-only, that is where they are now, in military airspace. However, even in military airspace, civilian aircraft in the US can traverse with FAA clearance or without. Also why should a pilot-less drone be afforded more rights to airspace than piloted aircraft? The FAA and many pilots agree.
No more would I want a ROV roaming around my neighborhood than similarly want a ROV flying around me in the much more dangerous airspace.
My son is currently in the air force…and works with the maintaince as a satcomm tech….and is getting out this july….and will be looking for a job…..is this a job within the border patrol
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