La FAA requiere que todos los aviones en el espacio aéreo nacional - incluso aquellos sin un piloto a bordo - sean capaces de "sentir y evitar" obstáculos.
A tal efecto, el U.S. Army ha comenzado a instalar cinco sistemas terrestres de detección y evitación (GBSAA - Ground-Based Sense-And-Avoid) para impedir colisiones entre UAVs.
El primer sistema ha sido instalado en la base militar de Fort Hood, Texas, que cuenta con dos compañías al mando de UAVs General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle. A esta le seguirán sendas instalaciones en Fort Campbell (Kentucky), Fort Drum (New York), Fort Riley (Kansas) y Fort Stewart (Georgia).
Dr. Vivek Lall has moved on from the Reliance Industries Limited defense and homeland security venture and joined the US defense aviation company, General Atomics.
General Atomics has been in India for around two years pitching its Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), an electromagnetic catapult system which it is developing to launch aircraft from carriers in place of the older steam catapults.
General Atomics is the manufacturer of some of the most formidable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) fielded by the US in its wars since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, which include the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper.
He joined Reliance in April 2011 and is now CEO of Strategic Development at General Atomics for the global market. Lall was earlier with Boeing Defense, Space and Security and steered the sale of aircraft and systems like the C-17 Globemaster III for the Indian Air Force (IAF), the P-8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance (LRMR) aircraft for the Indian Navy and Harpoon missiles for the IAF Jaguars as well as the navy P-8I aircraft.
While the UAV systems of General Atomics are not currently licensed for export to India, it is understood that Lall will be promoting a line-up of commercial products, besides the EMALS system being developed by the company.
In December 2013 the FAA selected six test sites that would help facilitate the utilisation of UAVs in national airspace, all of which have subsequently opened since April 2014.
The measures were a result of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, in which the administration was mandated by Congress to ensure UAVs can be fully integrated into the national airspace by 30 September 2015. The sixth and final US Federal Aviation Administration-mandated unmanned air vehicle (UAV) test site has been established in Virginia.
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University test site officially opened on 13 August, and follows the opening of the other sites in Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota and Texas.
The FAA has announced that six states have won the bid for official UAV testing sites. The states that won the bids include Virginia, Nevada, Texas, New York, Alaska and North Dakota. The sites will allow for testing of UAVs in controlled environments to gather data on how different UAVs perform. In 2015, the FAA has been mandated to open the airspace for operation of UAVs. Agriculture is said to be one of the primary beneficiaries of UAV technology in the future.
