Today, there are over 1.1 million registered drones in the U.S. When tallying the additional unregistered drones, there are approximately 2.5 million drones across the country. This number has skyrocketed over the past decade and is only expected to continue climbing.
The democratization of drones has created unprecedented opportunities for individuals and industry. These opportunities span the full qualitative range of positive to negative. Drones can invariably be used in ways that are enhancing or helpful or conversely, may be threatening or even harmful. As the drones themselves are not wholly autonomous, their actions are decided by and carried out by the user, or the drone operator. The proliferation of drones has inherently produced an influx of drone operators. These operators can and do take on a range of characteristics. Drone operators can be commonly labeled and characterized based on their intentions and behaviors. A review of these labels and characterizations produces a holistic picture of drones as both a poison and a cure.
There are essentially six different types of drone operators—one of which is clearly on the cure side of things, two of which are pretty blatantly on the poison side, and the remaining three fall somewhere in between. We’re going to spend a little time reviewing these categories.
This is clearly going to most closely represent the cure aspect of drones. Overall, most drone operators are considered to be compliant pilots. To fall into this category, the operators will have completed proper training, registered their drone with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), fulfilled educational requirements about airspace restrictions, and have the appropriate license depending on the type of drone they’re flying. These operators tend to be drone professionals or serious hobbyists or enthusiasts who understand the risks associated with flying in an environment shared with critical infrastructure and other aircraft.
With our one blatant cure label covered, we’ll move onto the three more ambiguous labels of careless, clueless, and uninhibited.
Careless operators are aware of the rules regulating drone flights, but they may not always fully adhere to them when they think it could benefit their flight objectives. These operators lack flight discipline and will maneuver their drone beyond the 400 foot altitude threshold or within the perimeter of geo-fenced critical infrastructure, such as being within 5 miles of major airports.
Careless drone operators pose a dangerous potential for collision, off course operation, or loss of control. A careless drone operator may not seek to do harm to critical infrastructure or other aircraft, but the nature of their flight path can unintentionally draw resources and personnel from security sections and law enforcement to respond to unauthorized incursions created by their careless flight.
Clueless
The clueless drone operator poses a higher level of risk than the careless operator to infrastructure, other aircraft, and personnel. This type of operator has no idea that there are drone restrictions and mandates in place designed to organize the airspace and maintain safety. Due to the high capability of drone technology and autonomy of systems such as obstacle avoidance, a clueless operator with no training can purchase a professional grade drone and fly it within minutes of unpackaging the box. With no idea that there are restrictions in place, the clueless operator could potentially fly a drone inside a perimeter, airport, or stadium, causing alarm to staff and potential danger to infrastructure assets and sensitive facilities.
The uninhibited drone operator is seeking a thrill by employing the drone in an unsafe manner and in ways that are inconsistent with existing rules. This type of operator may fly the drone at unsafe altitudes and speeds and in restricted areas. Each month the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) receives well over one hundred reports of UAS incursions over airports or near aircraft. Based off these incident reports, a significant portion of these flights are occurring thousands of feet above ground level, flown by uninhibited operators, and observed by pilots of civilian aircraft.
Now we’ll briefly cover the two types of operators that are more blatantly going to favor the poison side of drone activity
The criminal drone operator is someone who has previous experience flying drones and recognizes the capability of the platform and performance parameters to accomplish a specific mission. The criminal drone operator can leverage the payload capacity to drop specific equipment, use the drone as decoy to draw security personnel away from an area, use the drone to identify response forces, or conceal the registration of the drone to avoid detection. Among other uses, commercial off the shelf quadcopters are being employed to transport and drop contraband into prison yards. Criminals operating drones have shown that common perimeter defenses surrounding an infrastructure site can be defeated by affordable hobby drones, clearly demonstrating an expanded risk posed by drones.
Finally, a terrorist employing a drone could use the platform in a variety of ways. A high-profile attack might weaponize the drone by crashing the platform and leveraging its kinetic force and speed or potentially incorporate a weaponized payload to achieve a higher degree of destruction. Additionally, terrorist drone operators might employ drones as a reconnaissance tool, drop a point detonation explosive using the payload capacity, or attach an explosive charge to the drone and fly the drone into a target.
Each of the drone operators just discussed can potentially pose a risk to other personnel, aircraft, or infrastructure. While we generally should not have to worry about compliant operators, pilots, passengers, law enforcement, and infrastructure owners should always consider the most likely and most dangerous scenarios posed by non-compliant drone operations.