Expansion of small unmanned aerial vehicles in U.S. skies prompts DHS to set up new program.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

The Department of Homeland Security's science and technology directorate is setting up a new small unmanned aerial vehicle program ahead of the technology's expected integration into U.S. national airspace.

The small unmanned aerial systems program will have two main goals, said John Appleby, border and maritime security division program manager of the directorate's Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency.

One will be to serve as an information clearing house for the potentially thousands of law enforcement or first responder agencies that will want to employ small aerial drones. The other goal is to field a small tactical UAV for Border Patrol agents, he said at the Counter Terrorism Expo in Washington, D.C.

Congress in the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill passed earlier this year forced the FAA to speed up its process to integrate unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies. Small UAVs--defined as those weighing up to 55 pounds--will be the first to be widely deployed. The law says the agency must finish its small UAS rule-making process and allow the drones to fly at heights up to 2,000 feet by May 2014. It also permitted public safety agencies to fly micro-UAVs weighing as much as 4.4 pounds beginning last May.

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This is expected to be a boon for the vast majority of police and fire departments, said Appleby. Buying and maintaining a police helicopter is beyond most of their means, and about 99 percent of them have no overhead surveillance capabilities, he added.

"DHS needs these systems, and so does the external first responder community. That's what this program is all about," he said.

The office will be running field tests on small fixed-and rotary-wing UAVs beginning later this year so DHS agencies and local, state and other public safety entities can look at the data and make informed decisions on what aircraft to purchase, he said.

The vendors' aircraft will be put through a series of tests that will last about one week. They will then receive a report card at the end of the demonstration to see how they did. For the manufacturers, it will be an opportunity to get a "stamp of approval," he said. Customers can examine the data and make decisions on whether the aircrafts' specifications meet their needs.

"The idea is to build a knowledge and information base that will allow us to make decisions and move forward," he...