The Legal, Technical, and Practical Challenges of Countering the Commercial Drone Threat to National Security
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Authors
Ward, Allison
Subjects
drone, UAV, UAS, cUAS, quadcopter, electromagnetic spectrum, jamming, hacking, spoofing, covered
facility or asset
Advisors
Date of Issue
2019-05
Date
Publisher
Monterey California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) drones - lso referred to as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or quadcopters - are nearly ubiquitous. In the U.S. alone, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) projects the small model hobbyist UAS fleet to more than double from an estimated 1.1 million vehicles in 2017 to 2.4 million units by 2022. Given their range, photographic capability, and relatively low cost, they appeal to everyone from real estate agents to insurance claims adjusters to tech geeks to the Department of Defense (DoD) to terrorist actors. Their ubiquity and accessibility pose a growing concern to national security. Recognizing the potential impact to national security, as well as the tension between available counter-UAS (cUAS) systems and sections of title 18, U.S. Code, including the Aircraft Sabotage Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Wiretap Act, Congress has started passing legislation designed to assist Federal agencies with mitigating the threat posed by rogue UAS (e.g., 10 U.S.C. 130i; P.L. 115-302). There is no perfect cUAS interdiction solution, but hacking - including spoofing - may the most promising solution, with the least potential for collateral damage, thereby also likely making it the most compliant with the law enforcement principle of using non-lethal incapacitating weapons that minimize the risk of endangering uninvolved people.
Type
Thesis
Description
CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) Thesis document
Series/Report No
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NPS Report Number
Sponsors
NPS CIVINS
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Format
30 p.
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.