NAAA has been selected to be on the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Identification and Tracking Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). The goal of the ARC is to help public safety officials identify UAS during operations when enforcement must be taken.

 

While current law requires commercial UAS operators to mark their aircraft with an N-number, this is not likely to be visible on aircraft that are generally small relative to manned aircraft, which makes law enforcement difficult.

 

According to the UAS-ID ARC charter, “the UAS-ID ARC will provide a forum to discuss and provide recommendations to the FAA … regarding technologies available for the remote identification and tracking of UAS.” This includes recommending technologies, identifying requirements of law enforcement, and evaluating the feasibility and affordability of technical solutions to identify and track UAS.

 

NAAA will serve on the Implementation Working Group, which will combine recommendations developed by the Technologies and Law Enforcement and Security working groups to consider regulatory barriers, statutory considerations, economic cost, standards development, and an overall path to implementation. The report developed by the Implementation Working Group will function as the draft of the final recommendation from the ARC due Sept. 30, 2017.

 

The UAS-ID ARC presents a great opportunity for NAAA to ensure that identification and tracking technologies used by FAA and law enforcement are compatible with ag aviation and will be useful in more rural areas.