This reality features dedicated emergency responders who rely on and benefit from retooled cutting-edge military technologies in time-critical and potentially high mortality missions being without one of the greatest tools possibly afforded to them: the gift of sweeping sight and extended awareness potentially provided by civilian UAV use.
In many regards, the absence of UAVs highlights a travestied reality in which life-saving technology is limited in its effects by the restrictions of regulating authorities enabling deployment. In turn, while first responders continually put their lives at risk, a life-saving tool is left in reserve. UAVs have become an increasingly frontline tool for the U.S. military, and they should well serve a parallel purpose assisting our domestic heroes on the home front.
Overdue Operational Employment
On April 19, 2012, under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the first round list of approved private sector and civil use applicants for a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “Special Airworthiness Certification” under “Certification for Civil Operated Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Optionally Piloted Aircraft (OPA)” was released.The thrust to officiate (and therefore extend) UAV use in the civilian sector was initiated on Nov. 28, 2011 via the FAA’s order 8130.30B that “establishes procedures for issuing special airworthiness certificates in the experimental category or special flight permits to unmanned aircraft systems … and manned aircraft integrated with UAS technology.” This order outlined the requirements, standards, review, and approval processes for private sector and civil deployment of UAS systems to be used in a limited and largely controlled beta test scenario.
As a December 2011 addition to the order states, “In no case may any UAS or OPA be operated in the National Airspace System (NAS) as civil unless there is an appropriate and valid airworthiness certificate issued for that UAS or OPA. U.S. registration is a prerequisite for the issuance of a special airworthiness certificate to UAS and OPA.”
Most concerned parties believed that long before 2012, UAVs would be regulated and prevalent for use en masse in the civilian and private sectors. However, the U.S. has lagged far behind standard international expectations for deployment and widespread innovative domestic use.
Surveying Survivals Infrastructure
Following the earthquake in 2010, the U.S. mobilized and dispatched a massive humanitarian response to assist Haiti. This emergency response effort was all-inclusive, pulling assets, personnel and subject-matter experts from every agency, department and nearby unit available.One element of the U.S. response effort was the deployment of UAVs to damage-ridden areas. Master Sgt. Russell P. Petcoff, secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs for the U.S. Air Force, reported unambiguously, “An RQ-4 Global Hawk is providing imagery to determine the extent of damage to earthquake-stricken Haiti and usability of its infrastructure.”
The use of the Global Hawk, able to survey 40,000 square miles a day, provided emergency response teams and logistics planners views into the actual disaster area without risking lives or expending a great deal of time or finite resources.
One of the most telling evidences that current legislation for UAV use has been too long in coming is the role UAV technology played in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Coverage of the domestic use of UAVs was limited and failed to highlight the important role they played in sending real-time video and pictures of damage of critical infrastructure to the U.S. Air Force for emergency response analysis. These small crafts stayed aloft for up to two hours, capturing high-resolution images and conducting night missions.
Before Katrina, domestic use had been limited mostly to a Border Patrol capacity in the Southwestern U.S., relegated to watching the U.S.-Mexico border.
Situational Awareness from the Sky
The role of UAVs and the potential utility is ever increasing as examples and case studies of both international and domestic successes receive overdue publicity. From creating ad-hoc communications or networks when traditional means are unavailable, to GPS-based mapping imagery of infrastructure and effected areas, to creating sensor networks for real-time feedback on environmental conditions, the benefits of deploying unmanned crafts serve to provide an unrivaled level of situational awareness, especially during a high-casualty event.The aforementioned holistic criticism of the underutilization of UAV/UAS systems for emergency services largely ignores the progress made by particular states and county emergency services departments in the past decade. Of the certified private entities authorized to use UAVs in a FAA regulated manner, 12 entities with assumed emergency services missions, ranging from wildfire response to search and rescue and beyond, make the list. These entities are to be commended for their initiative to pursue and acquire authorization for operational use.
However, only three of the 10 most populated cities in the country, New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia, reign heavy among the UAV/UAS have-nots. Further, while not one of the most populous cities, but certainly important and a high-risk terrorist target, Washington, D.C., ranks high among the dubious have-nots, as well. Additionally, important and seemingly obvious agencies, like California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and various private entities have allowed their authorization to expire. In context, the notation on CAL FIRE’s authorization status as “expired” is not to say that regulatory agencies have disallowed the department from UAV/UAS use; the department has simply not continued or reapplied for recertification, which is puzzling, to say the least.
The tactical benefit and efficacy of UAV platforms and cost benefit analysis provided in lieu of directly sending emergency responder personnel to conduct dangerous situation reports and assessments is indisputable. In that vein, it is a bit disappointing that so few offices of emergency management and their partnering brethren have sought to utilize the FAAs recent UAV certification process.
All emergency response personnel understand that responding to a crisis situation carries with it a double burden: to ensure the rescue/protection of all possible civilian casualties at every expense short of the direct safety of your own team. The reality, that an emergency responder is little use to an emergency response effort if he or she becomes the victim, resonates soberly with these highly trained and dedicated people.
Retooling and Re-Energizing
UAVs retooled for civilian and private sector use is a clearly beneficial instrument to strengthen situational awareness and improve the prospects of successful emergency management operations, while delegating some of the risks inherent in domestic response operations to unmanned drones.This technology isn’t prevalent enough, however, despite the evidence championing its use. The underutilization of the technology speaks to a greater theme. The underlying pattern accentuates the fact that manmade and natural disaster responses have leveraged UAV use and that this use has been extremely successful.
The underutilization of this dual-use technology for emergency response is apolitical, practical, and points to the continuation of a great heritage of American innovativeness. UAV/UAS systems are only limited by the determination for use of the authorizing and consuming agencies. It holds within it the same potential to do what UAVs have done to change the face of warfare and surveillance by reducing the number of personnel unnecessarily in harm’s way.
Timothy W. Coleman is the co-founder of two security-focused technology start-up firms.
Brittany Minder serves as the Lint Center’s Public and External Affairs associate.
