Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS)

On Saturday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that the FAA had submitted a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS). This rulemaking was mandated by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 {§332(b) PL 112-95} with the final rule to be published by August 14^th, 2014 (Oops).

According to the Unified Agenda abstract for this rulemaking:

“This rulemaking would adopt specific rules for the operation of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in the national airspace system. These changes would address the classification of small unmanned aircraft, certification of their pilots and visual observers, registration, approval of operations, and operational limits in order to increase the safety and efficiency of the national airspace system.”

It is way too early to tell if this rulemaking will have any critical infrastructure security implications.