New Biden Domestic Counter Drone Plan

Earlier this week, the Biden Administration published a fact sheet on “The Domestic Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems National Action Plan”. It outlines a new Administration push to “expand where we can protect against nefarious UAS activity, who is authorized to take action, and how it can be accomplished lawfully.”

A supporting press release from the Justice Department notes that “the threat posed by the criminal use of drones is increasing and evolving, and department components cannot protect everyone, everywhere, all the time.” A shorter press release from DHS reports that: “DHS will continue to judiciously implement its C-UAS authorities, while protecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.” There is no press release from the FAA about the initiative.

The White House fact sheet provides eight key recommendations for action:

• Work with Congress to enact a new legislative proposal to expand the set of tools and actors who can protect against UAS by reauthorizing and expanding existing counter‑UAS authorities for the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Defense, State, as well as the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA in limited situations.

• Establish a list of US Government authorized detection equipment, approved by Federal security and regulatory agencies, to guide authorized entities in purchasing UAS detection systems in order to avoid the risks of inadvertent disruption to airspace or the communications spectrum.

• Establish oversight and enablement mechanisms to support critical infrastructure owners and operators in purchasing counter-UAS equipment for use by authorized Federal entities or SLTT law enforcement agencies.

• Establish a National Counter-UAS Training Center to increase training accessibility and promote interagency cross-training and collaboration.

• Create a Federal UAS incident tracking database as a government-wide repository for departments and agencies to have a better understanding of the overall domestic threat.

• Establish a mechanism to coordinate research, development, testing, and evaluation on UAS detection and mitigation technology across the Federal government.

• Work with Congress to enact a comprehensive criminal statute that sets clear standards for legal and illegal uses, closes loopholes in existing Federal law, and establishes adequate penalties to deter the most serious UAS-related crimes.

• Enhance cooperation with the international community on counter UAS technologies, as well as the systems designed to defeat them.

There is no mention of having the Federal Aviation Administration move forward on its rulemaking on “Prohibit or Restrict the Operation of an Unmanned Aircraft in Close Proximity to a Fixed Site Facility” (RIN 2120-AL33) which was listed on the ‘Long-Term Actions’ list for the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda. That rulemaking was mandated by Congress in §2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 (PL 114-190). That law required DOT to establish, by January 11^th, 2017, “establish a process to allow applicants to petition the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit or restrict the operation of an unmanned aircraft in close proximity to a fixed site facility.” {§2209(a)}