Unmanned in Civil Airspace

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the regulatory authority for civil aviation in India, issued a public notice in the year 2014 on the operation of drones in the civil domain. While conceding to the fact that drones have a number of applications that are useful and beneficial to the civil society at large, unregulated operations of drones in civil airspace and the absence of proper integration into the air traffic management system could pose serious hazard to normal civil air traffic. Given the state of air traffic management in India in respect of drones, one cannot contest this stand of the DGCA.

The public notice read as: “The airspace over cities in India has a high density of manned aircraft traffic and as such, there would be a possibility of mid-air collision between manned and unmanned aircraft leading to the possibility of a major accident. While the rules are being framed by the regulatory authority, in the interim, no non-government organisation or individual can launch a drone into Indian airspace for any purpose without prior authorisation. Any agency or individual seeking permission to operate a drone in civil airspace would require approval by the DGCA and clearance from Air Navigation Service Provider, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs and other concerned agencies.” It would, without doubt, be a tedious exercise indeed for any non-government organisation or private party to obtain sanction to operate a drone in civil airspace! However, draft guidelines for the commercial use of unmanned platforms were prepared and circulated in August last year by the DGCA.

Unmanned Aerial System

An unmanned aerial system (UAS) consists of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the various dedicated systems that support its operations such as a controller on the ground, a system of communications between him and the platform and the associated infrastructure on the ground. A UAV, also referred to as ‘drone’ or sometimes as remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), is, as the name suggests, an aerial platform without a human pilot on board. UAVs can operate with varying degrees of autonomy, either in an automated mode through a pre-programmed software in the computer that is carried onboard or the platform is controlled through a radio link by an operator on the ground.

To begin with, UAVs were developed for military application and these vehicles continue to be used by the armed forces of many nations across the globe in increasing numbers. With advancements in design, unmanned platforms are making ingress successfully into the combat regime and are endowed with the capability to deliver precision weapons against targets on the ground or to engage other unmanned craft in aerial combat. A platform with the capability of undertaking strike missions or aerial combat is referred to as unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). Military analysts believe that aerial warfare in the future will be dominated by unmanned aerial platforms with manned aircraft progressively receding from the prominence they currently command. The fact that in the United States, during the year 2016, the number of individuals trained to operate UAVs was far more than those trained to be combat pilots, is a clear indication of the way unmanned technology is evolving and finally will dominate the regime of aerial warfare in not too distant a future.

However, over the years, there has been a proliferation of UAVs in the civil domain as well with civilian drones vastly outnumbering military unmanned platforms. It is reported that by the year 2015, over a million unmanned civilian platforms had been sold by the various companies across the world engaged in its manufacture. Today, in the US or in the technologically advanced nations in Europe, employment of UAS is increasing in commercial, scientific, recreational, agricultural and other applications such as law enforcement, disaster management, search and rescue, wildlife management, monitoring of forest fires, surveillance, aerial mapping, monitoring of infrastructure such as power lines and oil pipelines, aerial photography, video recording of events, carriage of cargo and delivery of medicines into inaccessible areas or other products including even pizzas! However, regular operation of UAS requires a flawless integration of unmanned air traffic with the normal manned traffic. In this respect, Indian system of management of air traffic lags far behind thus smothering the enthusiasm amongst the civil segment of society that is waiting to exploit the immense potential of UAS technology.

Integration of UAS with Civil Air Traffic

The integration of unmanned aerial platforms into the civil airspace in India that is normally inhabited by routine civil air traffic, would pose immense operational and technological challenges. Despite the progress in this field by the civil aviation establishment in the UK, in the year 2016, a rotary-wing unmanned platform came within a few hundred feet of a passenger jet as it was on the final approach to land at Heathrow Airport. Fortunately, there was no collision; but the situation was potentially hazardous as the pilot could have been distracted in a highly critical phase of flight and could have gone wrong with disastrous consequences. Currently, in India, there is no system in place to prevent collision between unmanned platforms and civil aircraft, whether airliners or business aircraft. At the outset, there is imperative need to build up adequate infrastructure for tracking with absolute precision and for controlling UAVs of the smallest size operating in civil airspace even at ultra low heights.

CURRENTLY, IN INDIA, THERE IS NO SYSTEM IN PLACE TO PREVENT COLLISION BETWEEN UNMANNED PLATFORMS AND CIVIL AIRCRAFT, WHETHER AIRLINERS OR BUSINESS AIRCRAFT

A major problem that could arise during the flight by a UAV is loss of radio contact resulting loss of control of the platform. Loss of radio contact with the air traffic control (ATC) can take place with a manned aircraft as well. But in such a case, the situation is not catastrophic as there is a pilot onboard and procedures for handling such a contingency are well defined and known to both the crew and the ATC. Such procedures are routinely rehearsed as part of the training programme. However, with an unmanned platform, the situation is quite different primarily on account of the fact that there is no human onboard to take control of the situation. Interruption of radio link between the controller on the ground and an unmanned platform thus could create a potentially a very hazardous situation for manned aircraft operating in the same airspace. Thus it would be mandatory that there is a system in place to manage such a contingency as also the system must have a high degree of reliability and must also be a proven one. It goes without saying that there needs to be a sound and effective regulatory framework to ensure proper integration of the two segments of air traffic operating manned and unmanned platforms respectively.

A malaise that generally afflicts the Indian civil aviation industry is that the regulatory framework is not structured to inspire growth; but on the contrary, it tends to impede growth. A new regulatory framework that is contemplated for the integration of unmanned traffic into civil airspace, must be UAV-friendly and must aim to facilitate technological growth and not stifle it. The regulatory framework ought to be so structured that it balances the need for safety and security with further development of technology and innovation.

Another issue associated with the operation of drones in civil airspace is the potential threat that unmanned platforms can pose to privacy of individuals or organisations as these devices can be used to collect data and images without the knowledge of the target. The new policy under formulation would have to address this issue and define the liability of the operator in the event of infringement of the privacy of an individual or organisation.

Conclusion

Integration of UAVs with manned air traffic in civil airspace will undoubtedly be a technological challenge and a daunting task for both the Indian civil aviation regulatory authorities and the industry. In order to achieve and maintain the high levels of safety standards prevalent in the Indian civil aviation industry, all the stakeholders must ensure that there is no compromise of any kind on account of integration of the newly emerging unmanned segment of civil aviation with the age-old and well established manned air traffic. Failure to ensure this could have serious implications for air safety overall and for the future of the industry as a whole.