By: Ben Gielow



On 11 March, Ben Gielow, AUVSI’s general counsel and senior Government
Relations manager, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Aviation, at a hearing entitled, “Moving NextGen
Forward: Leveraging the Assets of the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical
Center.”  The other hearing witnesses included the FAA’s deputy
administrator, the FAA’s director of the technical center, the CEO of
CSSI, the CEO of the Air Traffic Control Association, and a
representative from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
 You can watch the hearing and read all of the witness testimony by clicking here.  Below is AUVSI’s written testimony:



Chairman LoBiondo, Ranking Member Larsen, Members of the Committee,
thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I am speaking on
behalf of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
(AUVSI), the world's largest non-profit organization devoted exclusively
to advancing the unmanned systems and robotics community.  AUVSI has
been around for more than 40 years, and we currently have more than
7,000 members, including over 600 corporate members. 



As you know, unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, increase human
potential, allowing us to execute dangerous or difficult tasks safely
and efficiently. Whether it is helping first responders, advancing
scientific research, or making business more efficient, UAS are capable
of saving time, saving money, and most importantly, saving lives.
However, the benefit of this technology does not stop there; this
technology has incredible potential to create jobs and stimulate the
U.S. economy as well. 



Last year AUVSI released an economic impact study finding that, within
the first 10 years following UAS integration, the UAS industry will
create approximately 100,000 jobs and have more than $82 billion in
economic impact. Because of cost, small UAS, weighing less than 55
pounds, will comprise a majority of the developing commercial market.
 These small UAS have sufficient capabilities to meet the needs of
remote sensing for a variety of commercial markets, including
agriculture – which our economic report suggests will comprise 80% of
the commercial UAS market – inspection, real estate, and journalism.
 Most operations will be conducted below 500 feet with limited need to
fly above 1,500 feet. 



However, before these jobs and economic impact become a reality, the FAA
must write the safety regulations to integrate these systems.  The
longer the FAA takes to write those regulations, the greater the risk to
aviation safety. 



The need for a regulatory framework became evident on March 6th, when a
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Administrative Law Judge
ruled that FAA has no authority to regulate model aircraft or UAS
because the FAA has not yet adopted regulations through formal
rulemaking.  To date, everything the FAA has published on UAS has been
guidance or policy, which is not binding on the public.  Although the
FAA has already indicated its plan to appeal the decision to the full
NTSB, staying the decision until the full Board reviews it on appeal,
the FAA may also implement emergency rulemaking.



The current pace of UAS integration, specifically with regard to small
UAS, is unacceptable.  The FAA has been working on rulemaking for small
UAS since 2009 and the projected date for a final rule was in 2011.
 Unfortunately, the FAA does not anticipate releasing the notice of
proposed rulemaking for small UAS until this fall, and it is unlikely
the rule will be finalized until at least 2015.  The longer regulations
for small UAS operations are delayed, the more people will be flying in
an unregulated manner.  The FAA’s surveillance and enforcement resources
will be severely strained, which poses a threat to aviation safety. We
are concerned that if unregulated operations proliferate, the likelihood
that something could go wrong increases.  If and when that happens, it
could set back this revolutionary technology that is advancing faster
than the regulatory framework around it.



An option may be for the FAA to use the authority granted to it by
Congress in Section 333 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, which
says, “the Secretary of Transportation shall determine if certain
unmanned aircraft system may operate safely in the national airspace
system before completion of the plan and rulemaking…” The FAA has
delegation authority, and perhaps it could enter into agreements with
the UAS test sites to do certification work for small UAS aircraft and
operators before the small UAS notice of proposed rulemaking is released
later this year.  



The FAA’s Technical Center can play an invaluable leadership role in
collecting and analyzing UAS data to help the FAA write UAS rules;
however, the UAS research department at the Technical Center is
under-staffed, under-resourced, and its current research is not based on
a strategic plan to integrate UAS into the national airspace system.
 In fact, last month, the Department of Transportation Inspector General
found there is an inadequate framework for sharing and analyzing UAS
data, and the FAA has no process to ensure that all incidents are
reported. AUVSI would like to see a holistic approach to UAS research
based on the FAA’s roadmap and concept of operations.



Although the FAA’s UAS research budget has grown in recent years, from
approximately $4 million in 2013 to $8 million in 2014, and possibly $9
million in the President’s 2015 budget, there are currently less than
five full-time UAS researchers at the Technical Center, not including
contractors.  The rest of the researchers are on loan from other
departments at the Technical Center.  This staffing construct is
referred to as a “matrix” team.  Thus far, all UAS research has been
tasked from the UAS Integration Office in FAA’s headquarters. AUVSI
would like to see the FAA expand its core UAS research team.  



Currently, all UAS research at the Technical Center is funded through
the FAA’s research, engineering and development budget, which provides
very little flexibility in how funds can be used.  This is different
from the FAA’s NextGen or operations research budgets, which provide
more flexibility in how funds are used.  In this research budget, all of
FAA’s research programs compete against each other on a yearly basis
and the final decisions on what program projects gets funded are made by
the FAA’s Technical Community Representative Group (TCRG); therefore,
there is no guarantee of future UAS funding. AUVSI would like to see
more UAS projects directly funded through the FAA’s NextGen or operation
research budgets, which have thus far funded relatively limited UAS
research projects.



In 2014, six UAS research projects were initially approved by the TCRG,
with a total budget of approximately $8 million.  Interestingly, none of
these projects were intended for UAS test site data management.
 However, now that the test sites have been selected, the FAA is in need
of a location to store and analyze the data, as well as resources to
pay for data analysis.  Because there is no “new” money in the research
budget, the FAA was forced to cancel one of its approved projects and
use part of that amount – $500,000 – to initiate the test site data
work.  If the FAA is committed to using the test sites to collect and
analyze data to help with widespread UAS integration (the goal of the
test sites), a half-of-a-million dollars is likely going to be
inadequate. In comparison, the FAA has budgeted approximately $1 million
toward the stand-up of the yet-to-be-announced UAS Center of
Excellence.  



According to the FAA, because they were not given money to start up or
manage the UAS test sites in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, or in
annual funding bills, they are unable to direct the research work at
the test sites.  This begs the questions: what type of data will the
test sites collect, will everyone be speaking the same data language,
where will the data go, how will propriety company information be
protected, how will the data be used, and how will duplicative work be
avoided?  



The FAA hopes to iron out these details when it brings the six sites
together at a meeting here at the Technical Center later this month.
 Hopefully, the sites, along with the FAA, will all agree on a data
management plan and outline who will be doing what research.  Of note,
because the FAA will be funding the yet-to-be-announced Center of
Excellence, the FAA will be able to direct specific research at this
Center.  How this Center of Excellence research and the test site
research will harmonize has not yet been determined. 



Lastly, AUVSI would like to request the Committee closely monitor the
FAA’s compliance with section 1087(b) of the 2014 National Defense
Authorization Act, which requires a report to Congress on the resource
requirements needed in order to meet the milestones for UAS integration
described in the five-year roadmap.  The FAA has until July to issue the
report.  Without that number, Congress and the UAS industry will not
fully understand the resources needed by the FAA to write UAS
regulations. If the FAA is unable to meet that deadline, we would
suggest the Government Accountability Office be tasked with doing the
budget estimate and folding it into one of its ongoing UAS reports.  



UAS offer great promise, but before this industry can take off, we need
to know the safety rules our members must abide by.  For every day the
FAA delays integration, the U.S. stands to lose $27 million in economic
benefit, which is why it is in all of our best interests to help the FAA
get the data they need and process it into meaningful regulations.  The
Technical Center, along with other industry, government, and academia
partners are prepared to do to the work. 



Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today. I look forward to answering any questions the committee might have.