The Federal Aviation Administration anticipates receiving numerous proposals under a solicitation seeking six test sites for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as part of plans to integrate drones into national airspace over the next several years, the head of the agency said yesterday.

“We’re expecting that we will receive a lot of proposals. There has been very significant interest in this,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told the aviation subpanel of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

The FAA released a request for proposals (RFP), which it refers to as a screening for information request, earlier this month and plans to award the sites by the end of the year (Defense Daily, Feb. 15).

A number of states, such as Oklahoma, Utah, North Dakota, Alaska as well as several others have expressed interest in competing for the sites, said Ben Gielow, the government relations manager for the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), who is closely tracking the FAA efforts to integrate UAVs into civilian airspace.

Establishing the test sites is a component of the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 signed by President Barack Obama a year ago. Among its many provisions is the goal of integrating UAVs into the airspace by 2015.

The RFP for the test sites came months later than expected, and the FAA recently pushed back the timeframe from awarding the sites from the end of September to the end of the year.

“Unmanned aircraft represents a very significant challenge for integration into the national airspace system,” Huerta told the committee. “It also represents a very significant opportunity.”

According to Gielow, the FAA since the RFP release has issued updates asking potential bidders to identify themselves by March 6 and in the weeks following supply some information about their possible sites.

Opening skies to UAVs has a host of applications, including law enforcement, firefighting and other public safety issues, or infrastructure, environmental and agricultural monitoring, assessing the impact of a natural disaster, or even to carry cargo. It is also a potentially lucrative opportunity for UAV makers who have been mostly dependent on the military for business.

Huerta said the FAA is also seeking information regarding privacy considerations, which has been a focus of detractors concerned about low-flying UAVs that can carry highly sophisticated infrared and imaging technology that could be used to snoop.

Huerta said that as a privacy policy is developed for the use of UAVs in public airspace, the test sites will be required to show compliance with those standards.