The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch isn’t developing technologies for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to help meet needs of its customers in the department but instead is working with them to provide a better understanding of how the technology can help with their missions, according to a DHS official.
There are already “huge” markets in the commercial space for UAS and counter-UAS systems and technologies so “S&T is not planning to develop” these systems and technologies, Anh Duong, program executive officer for UAS at S&T, says at a DHS Industry Day in October. “Instead, our priority is to help our customers, in this case CBP, Coast Guard, ICE, etcetera, understand the utility of this new exciting tool and how it might help them achieve their missions.”
Duong says that S&T will “loot at enabling UAS technology” as a possible tool in the toolkit for its customers.
Duong briefly noted several concerns related to the use of UAS by law enforcement aside from the quality of the technology and its cost, which she says are the two primary issues. The others are privacy, civil liberties and public acceptance, she adds.
The widespread availability of drones also makes it easy for “bad guys” to obtain them and use them “against us as well,” Duong says, adding that the “playing field for drones may tilt to the bad guys” because they don’t have to worry about laws.
For counter-UAS systems, S&T’s initial plans are to “evaluate and understand the state of the art” of the capabilities of the technology, and second, the mission applications, Duong says. “The good news,” she says, is that there are a lot of counter-UAS solutions.
The “bad news,” Duong says, is that some of the counter-UAS solutions have been developed for the military so there has been little testing in homeland security settings, which means there is “very little understanding” about how these systems might perform in homeland security applications.
The laws related to counter-UAS also need to be updated, Duong says. Currently, it’s illegal to take down an aircraft, including drones, so that means many of the counter-UAS solutions on the market can’t be used by law enforcement, she says.
Duong says that DHS is part of an ongoing interagency effort begun months ago to modify the national strategy around drones, including proposals to change the laws around counter-UAS.
DHS is all about accelerating the use of UAS into the national airspace, Duong says, noting that this has to be done “safely, securely and reliably,” otherwise progress will be held up.