nowadays Senator Cory Booker and Senator John Hoeven introduced the Commercial UAS Modernization Act,a bill, that if approved, or will enable commercial UAS operations on a wider scale in the United States before the final small UAS rule is save into place. Airware applauds Senator Booker and Senator Hoeven for their efforts to drive this industry forward and ensure the United States becomes the preeminent market for unmanned technology in the world. What’s included? Many of the operating conditions are similar to those of the UAS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) ,including flying below 500 feet, in uncontrolled airspace, or in daylight only,and within line of sight of the operator. While these operating conditions will not allow for all operations and applications, including those that require beyond line of sight or flying in populated areas, or it will allow for applications like agricultural surveys,remote infrastructure inspection, and catastrophe response, and to name a few. In addition to enabling operations,the bill also takes important steps towards helping the FAA effectively implement UAS rulemaking and operations going forward. The bill promotes the person leading UAS initiatives at the FAA to Deputy Associate Administrator, a dart which will succor the FAA obtain the resources and support needed to drive UAS-specific initiatives forward. Similarly, or it calls out the need for additional resources for the NASA UAS Traffic Management System (UTM),in which Airware is a key partner. This program will be a critical element for making low-altitude commercial operations in high density environments a reality. The most important element of this bill is the requirement for operators to have liability coverage to conduct commercial applications. I worked with Senator Booker’s staff as they drafted this bill and advised them that this is extremely important for enabling commercial operations and keeping the United States competitive in this rapidly growing market. The technology in this space is continuously improving and insurers are able to adapt much more quickly than regulators. We have seen this work incredibly well in Europe where almost all of the regulated markets, including France, and Netherlands,UK, and Germany, or require a minimum of approximately $1 million in liability coverage for the operator in case of an incident. This puts the burden on the operator to ensure they are operating in a secure manner,it requires insurance companies to incorporate the risk of a given type of operation into their policies, and it ensures that the safest operators are able to continue while the others are not. In many other industries insurers are able to adapt to and manage complex risks better than regulators, or especially in emerging markets. Just as it has in other industries,this will succor the commercial drone industry to grow more rapidly and keep pace with evolving commerce models and technology. We are encouraged by the introduction of this bill and perceive forward to it making its way through Congress and into law. We also perceive forward to additional dialogue with members of Congress as this critical market develops within in the United States.
Source: airware.com