[Infowarrior] - UAVs pose myriad problems to US airspace, GAO reports

[Richard Forno]

Unmanned aircraft pose myriad problems to US airspace, GAO reports
Submitted by Layer 8 on Fri, 05/16/2008 - 3:54pm.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/27876

A ton of work needs to be done by military, federal and civil aviation  
groups if the rapidly growing unmanned aircraft community is allowed  
routine access to public airspace.

In a wide-ranging report on the impact of unmanned aircraft on the  
country’s commercial airspace, congressional watchdogs at the  
Government Accountability Office today called on Congress to create an  
overarching body within Federal Aviation Administration to coordinate  
unmanned aircraft development and integration efforts.

  The GAO also called on the FAA to work with the Department of  
Defense, which has extensive unmanned aircraft experience to issue its  
program plan.  In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)  
assesses the security implications of routine unmanned aircraft access  
to commercial airspace, the GAO said. Even if all issues are  
addressed, and there are a number of critical problems, unmanned  
aircraft may not receive routine access to the national airspace  
system until 2020, the GAO concluded.

But such access is certainly on the minds of the unmanned aircraft  
community. That’s mainly because the market for government and  
commercial-use unmanned aircraft could explode in the coming years.   
Federal agencies such as the DHS, the Department of Commerce, and NASA  
alone use unmanned planes in many areas, such as border security,  
weather research, and forest fire monitoring. Researchers at the Teal  
Group said in their 2008 market study estimates that UAV spending will  
more than double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV  
spending of $3.4 billion annually to $7.3 billion, totaling close to  
$55 billion in the next ten years. The forecast also indicates that  
the US could account for 73% of the world’s research and development  
investment unmanned flight in the next decade.

Still, routine unmanned aircraft access to the national airspace  
system poses technological, regulatory, workload, and coordination  
challenges, the GAO said. A key technological challenge is providing  
the capability for unmanned aircraft to meet the safety requirements  
of the national airspace system. For example, a person operating an  
aircraft must maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other  
aircraft. However, because the airplanes have no person on board, on- 
board equipment, radar, or direct human observation must substitute  
for this capability. No technology has been identified as a suitable  
substitute for a person on board the aircraft in seeing and avoiding  
other aircraft, the GAO report stated

Additionally, the aircraft’ communications and control links are  
vulnerable to unintentional or intentional radio interference that can  
lead to loss of control of an aircraft and an accident, and in the  
future, ground control stations—the unmanned airplane equivalent to a  
manned aircraft cockpit—may need physical security protection to guard  
against hostile takeover, the GAO said.

There are other issues as well, the GAO report states, including:

·          Many unmanned airplanes, particularly smaller models, will  
likely operate at altitudes below 18,000 feet, sharing airspace with  
other objects, such as gliders. Sensing and avoiding these other  
objects represents a particular challenge for unmanned aircraft, since  
the other objects normally do not transmit an electronic signal to  
identify themselves and FAA cannot mandate that all aircraft or  
objects possess this capability so that the aircraft can operate  
safely. Many small unmanned do not have equipment to detect such  
signals and, in some cases, are too small to carry such equipment. The  
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, in a 2006 survey of its  
membership, found that unmanned aircraft’s inability to see and avoid  
manned aircraft is a priority concern.

·          The effort to develop the Traffic Alert and Collision and  
Avoidance System (TCAS), used widely in manned aircraft to help  
prevent collisions, demonstrates the challenge of developing a detect,  
sense, and avoid capability for unmanned airplanes. Although FAA,  
airlines, and several private-sector companies developed TCAS over a  
13-year period, at a cost of more than $500 million, FAA officials  
point out that the designers did not intend for TCAS to act as the  
sole means of avoiding collisions and that the on board pilot still  
has the responsibility for seeing and avoiding other aircraft. FAA  
officials also point out that TCAS computes collision avoidance  
solutions based on characteristics of manned aircraft, and does not  
incorporate unmanned aircraft’s  slower turn and climb rates in  
developing conflict solutions. Consequently, FAA officials believe  
that developing the detect, sense, and avoid technology that unmanned  
aircraft would need to operate routinely in the national airspace  
system poses an even greater challenge than TCAS did. FAA officials  
believe that an acceptable detect, sense, and avoid system for  
airplanes could cost up to $2 billion to complete and is still many  
years away.

·          The lack of protected radio frequency spectrum for unmanned  
operations heightens the possibility that an operator could lose  
command and control of the plane. Unlike manned aircraft, which use  
dedicated, protected radio frequencies, unmanned aircraft currently  
use unprotected radio spectrum and, like any other wireless  
technology, remain vulnerable to unintentional or intentional  
interference. This remains a key security vulnerability for unmanned  
aircraft, because in contrast to a manned aircraft where the pilot has  
direct, physical control of the aircraft, interruption of radio  
frequency, such as by jamming, can sever the plane’s only means of  
control. One of the experts we surveyed listed providing security and  
protected spectrum among the critical airplane integration technologies.

·          Unmanned aircraft have the capability to deliver nuclear,  
biological, or chemical payloads, and can be launched undetected from  
virtually any site. In response to the events of September 11, 2001,  
entry doors to passenger airplane cockpits were hardened to prevent  
unauthorized entry. However, no similar security requirements exist to  
prevent unauthorized access to unmanned aircraft ground control  
stations—the unmanned system equivalent of the cockpit. Security is a  
latent issue that could impede unmanned airplane  developments even  
after all the other challenges have been addressed, according to one  
study.

·          Although DOD has obtained benefits from its unmanned  
operations overseas, the agency notes in its Unmanned Systems Roadmap  
that unmanned aircraft reliability is a key factor in integrating  
unmanned systems into the national airspace system. Our analysis of  
information that DOD provided on 199 military unmanned airplane  
accidents, of varying degrees of severity, that occurred over 4½ years  
during operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, indicates that  
reliability continues to be a challenge. About 65% of the accidents  
resulted from materiel issues, such as failures of aircraft  
components. FAA officials noted that unmanned aircraft today are at a  
similar stage as personal computers in their early years before newer,  
more user-friendly operating systems became standard.

·          The variety of ground control station designs across  
unmanned aircraft is another human factors concern. For example,  
pilots of the Predator B control the aircraft by using a stick and  
pedals, similar to the actions of pilots of manned aircraft. In  
contrast, pilots of the Global Hawk use a keyboard and mouse to  
control the aircraft. Differences in unmanned system missions could  
require some variation among control station designs, but the extent  
to which regulations should require commonalities across all ground  
control stations awaits further research.

·          Because unmanned aircraft have never routinely operated in  
the national airspace system, the level of public acceptance is  
unknown. One researcher observed that as unmanned aircraft expand into  
the non-defense sector, there will inevitably be public debate over  
the need for and motives behind such proliferation. One expert we  
surveyed commented that some individuals may raise privacy concerns  
about a small aircraft that is “spying” on them, whether operated by  
law enforcement officials or by private organizations, and raised the  
question of what federal agency would have the responsibility for  
addressing these privacy concerns.

While those issues are just a few outlined in the report, the GAO said  
a number of activities are also ongoing to address concerns.  The GAO  
report states some of those activities include:

  ·          The DoD plans to spend over $7 billion in research,  
development, test, and evaluation funds for unmanned aircraft between  
fiscal years 2007 and 2013. Data from these efforts could facilitate  
FAA’s development of a regulatory framework to allow unmanned aircraft  
to have routine access to the national airspace.

·          The FAA has budgeted $4.7 million for fiscal years 2007  
through 2009 for further unmanned systems research on topics such as  
detect, sense, and avoid; command and control; and system safety  
management. NASA, FAA, and others have conducted tests to determine  
the capabilities of and potential improvements to detect, sense, and  
avoid technology. For example, in 2003, NASA installed radar on a  
manned aircraft that was equipped for optional control from the  
ground. The tests indicated that the radar detected intruding aircraft  
earlier than the onboard pilot, but also revealed the need for further  
work on the onboard sensing equipment to ensure adequate response time  
for the remote pilot. According to a summary of the lessons learned  
from these tests, the results showed some promise, but indicated that  
much work and technology maturation would need to occur before the  
tested system could be deemed ready for operational use.

·          The FAA has established a 12,000 square mile unmanned  
system test center to provide airspace for testing and evaluating  
unmanned aircraft and to provide data for use in developing  
regulations. FAA expects to obtain additional data from increased  
coordination with the DoD. However, FAA has not yet analyzed the  
limited data that it has already accumulated on recent unmanned  
operations in the national airspace system, citing resource  
constraints. To address expected workload increases, FAA is  
introducing more automation into its work processes and has granted  
DoD authority to operate small unmanned systems weighing 20lbs or  
less, over its installations without receiving prior FAA approval.

·          Addressing the challenge of radio frequency allocation for  
unmanned operations is moving forward, but may not be completed for  
several years. The International Telecommunication Union allocates  
radio frequency spectrum and deliberates such issues at periodic World  
Radiocommunication Conferences, the most recent of which was held in  
the fall of 2007. To obtain spectrum allocation for unmanned aircraft,  
FAA has participated with the Department of Commerce in a national  
preparation process to place spectrum allocation decisions on the  
conference’s future agenda. At the 2007 conference, delegates agreed  
to discuss at the next conference, in 2011, the spectrum requirements  
and possible regulatory actions, including spectrum allocations,  
needed to support the safe operation of unmanned systems.

·          The DoD is urging manufacturers to increase reliability  
while keeping costs low by using such practices as standard systems  
engineering, ensuring that replacement parts are readily available,  
and using redundant, fail-safe designs. The DoD also notes in its  
Unmanned Systems Roadmap that, although unmanned planes suffer  
accidents at one to two orders of magnitude greater than the rate  
incurred by manned military aircraft, accident rates have declined as  
operational experience increased. For some airplanes, the accident  
rates have become similar to or lower than that of the manned F-16  
fighter jet, according to the roadmap. According to a study by The  
MITRE Corporation, General Atomics designed the Predator B with  
reliability in mind, and the Altair airplane, which is a modified  
version of the Predator, has, among other things, triple redundant  
avionics to increase reliability.

·          FAA has established an unmanned system program office and  
is reviewing the body of manned aviation regulations to determine the  
modifications needed to address unmanned aircraft, but these  
modifications may not be completed until 2020. As an interim step, the  
FAA has begun an effort to provide increased access to the national  
airspace system for small unmanned aircraft. The FAA is taking steps  
to develop data to use in developing standards, but has been slow to  
analyze the data that it has already collected. FAA is also  
coordinating with other countries to harmonize regulations.