Request Clarification On The FAA’s Plans For Any Voluntary Industry Implementation Of Drone Identification

U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-SD) (pictured) and Ed Markey (D-MA), both members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, are urging the FAA to publish a rulemaking for the remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) without further delay and requested clarification on the FAA’s plans for any voluntary industry implementation of drone identification.

“The FAA has demonstrated past success with voluntary industry collaboration, exemplified by the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability and the Drone Integration Pilot Program, which have both provided crucial data and interim solutions to better inform the FAA’s long-term plans for UAS traffic management,” the senators wrote in a letter to FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson. “We urge the FAA to apply lessons learned from oversight of these programs to any framework for voluntary industry implementation of remote identification.”

The FAA was directed to develop standards for remote identification of UAS in the FAA Extension Act of 2016. The deadline for these standards – July 2018 – has long passed. The Department of Transportation (DOT) most recently delayed a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for remote identification from September 1 to December 20, 2019.

To better understand the FAA’s plans for voluntary implementation pursuant to the tasking at the June 6, 2019, DAC meeting, the Senators requested answers to the following questions

• How does the FAA plan to administer and facilitate any voluntary deployment of remote identification equipment to ensure these deployments are carried out in a nationally consistent manner?  
• Will the FAA publish any interim rule or other informal guidelines regarding voluntary deployment of remote identification?
• Does the FAA believe that the remote identification NPRM and final rule will be further delayed as a result of any voluntary actions?
• How will the FAA ensure that any voluntary actions taken by industry in the pre-rule period do not substantially differ from requirements laid out by the NPRM or final rule?
• How does the FAA plan to use information gathered from voluntary implementation to inform the rulemaking process?

(Source: Senator Thune news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.thune.senate.gov