Each month, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) receives more than 100 reports from pilots and others who spot what appears to be an unmanned aircraft (UAS) flying close to an airport or a manned airplane. It\u2019s become a serious safety concern for the agency, and a potential security issue for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).<\/p>\n
In addition to the FAA\u2019s ongoing outreach and education efforts, an additional step toward a solution is to detect and identify these \u201crogue drones\u201d and their operators. Recently, the FAA partnered with DHS and CACI International to explore how the company\u2019s prototype detection technology may help detect UAS in the vicinity of airports. The main goal of the partnership is to safely explore procedures and processes for deploying and operating detection technologies in and around commercial airports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe explosive growth of the unmanned aircraft industry makes evaluating detection technologies an urgent priority,\u201d said Marke \u201cHoot\u201d Gibson (shown at right), FAA Senior Advisor on UAS Integration. \u201cThis research is totally aimed at keeping our skies safe, which is our number one mission.\u201d
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\n“Working with the FAA, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate is proud to provide our expertise in testing and simulation of technologies to better address the safety and security challenges posed by unmanned aerial systems,\u201d said DHS Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Technology Robert Griffin. <\/p>\n
CACI\u2019s proof-of-concept system employs radio frequency sensors at strategic locations around an airport in high, prominent locations. When the sensors detect frequencies unmanned aircraft typically use, it triangulates the signals and determines the location of both the UAS and the operator.<\/p>\n
CACI Chief Operating Officer and President of U.S. Operations John Mengucci said, \u201cThe results of testing under our PathFinder agreement with the FAA at Atlantic City International Airport demonstrate that CACI\u2019s proprietary system \u2013 SkyTracker \u2013 performed as designed. SkyTracker successfully identified, detected, and tracked UAS in flight, and precisely located drone ground operators \u2013 all without interfering with airport ground operations. We are very proud to partner with the FAA and DHS to help ensure national airspace safety from the escalating UAS threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
From January 25 to February 2, the CACI system was evaluated at Atlantic City International Airport (ACY), the first UAS detection research in a commercial airport environment. A total of 141 operations were executed over five days \u2013 72 with a UAS on the ground and 69 with different small UAS in flight. In the coming months, engineers from the FAA, DHS, CACI and the University of Maryland (UMD), which also was a partner in the evaluation, will work together to compile the data for a final report by August 2016.<\/p>\n
Research on UAS detection systems may go beyond addressing the FAA\u2019s concerns with the safety of UAS in the nation\u2019s airspace. The effort also may contribute to keeping the skies safe from \u201cbad actors\u201d who want to use unmanned aircraft for malicious purposes. To that end, the agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with DHS in December to collaborate on the safe integration of UAS into the U.S. aviation system.<\/p>\n