FAA has authority to authorize all UAS operations in the national airspace—military; public (academic institutions and federal, state, and local governments including law enforcement organizations); and civil (non-government including commercial). Currently, since a final rulemaking is not completed, FAA only allows UAS access to the national airspace on a case-by-case basis. FAA provides access to the airspace through three different means: Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COA): Public entities including FAA-designated test sites may apply for COA. A COA is an authorization, generally for up to 2 years, issued by the FAA to a public operator for a specific UAS activity. Between January 1, 2014 and March 19, 2015 FAA had approved 674 public COAs. Special Airworthiness Certificates in the Experimental Category (Experimental Certificate): Civil entities, including commercial interests, may apply for experimental certificates, which may be used for research and development, training, or demonstrations by manufactures. Section 333 exemptions: Since September 2014, commercial entities may apply to FAA for issued exemptions under section 333 of the 2012 Act, Special Rules for Certain Unmanned Aircraft Systems. This exemption requires the Secretary of Transportation to determine if certain UASs may operate safely in the national airspace system prior to the completion of UAS rulemakings. FAA has granted such exemptions to 48 of 684 total applications (7 percent) from companies or other entities applying under section 333. These companies may apply to fly at their own designated sites or the test sites. While limited operations continue through these means of FAA approval, FAA has been planning for further integration. In response to requirements of the 2012 Act, FAA issued the UAS Comprehensive Plan and the UAS Integration Roadmap, which broadly map the responsibilities and plans for the introduction of UAS into the national airspace system. These plans provide a broad framework to guide UAS integration efforts. The UAS Comprehensive Plan described the overarching, interagency goals, and approach and identified six high- level strategic goals for integrating UAS into the national airspace. The FAA Roadmap identified a broad three-phase approach to FAA’s UAS integration plans—Accommodation, Integration, and Evolution—with associated priorities for each phase that provide additional insight into how FAA plans to integrate UAS into the national airspace system. This phased approach has been supported by both academics and industry. FAA plans to use this approach to facilitate further incremental steps toward its goal of seamlessly integrating UAS flight into the national airspace. Accommodation phase: According to the Roadmap, in the accommodation phase, FAA will apply special mitigations and procedures to safely facilitate limited UAS access to the national airspace system in the near-term. Accommodation is to predominate in the near-term with appropriate restrictions and constraints to mitigate any performance shortfalls. UAS operations in the national airspace system are considered on a case-by-case basis. During the near-term, R&D is to continue to identify challenges, validate advanced mitigation strategies, and explore opportunities to progress UAS integration into the national airspace system. Integration phase: The primary objective of the integration phase is establishing performance requirements for UAS that would increase access to the NAS. During the mid- to far-term, FAA is to establish new or revised regulations, policies, procedures, guidance material, training, and understanding of systems and operations to support routine NAS operations. FAA plans for the integration phase to begin in the near- to mid-term with the implementation of the small UAS rule and is to expand the phase further over time (mid- and far-term) to consider wider integration of a broader field of UASs. Evolution phase: In the evolution phase, FAA is to work to routinely update all required policy, regulations, procedures, guidance material, technologies, and training to support UAS operations in the NAS operational environment as it evolves over time. According to the Roadmap, it is important that the UAS community maintains the understanding that the NAS environment is not static and that many improvements are planned for the NAS over the next 13—15 years. To avoid obsolescence, UAS developers are to maintain a dual focus: integration into today’s NAS while maintaining cognizance of how the NAS is evolving. In February 2015, FAA issued a Notice for Proposed Rulemaking for the operations of small UASs—those weighing less than 55 pounds—that could, once finalized, allow greater access to the national airspace. To mitigate risk, the proposed rule would limit small UASs to daylight-only operations, confined areas of operation, and visual-line-of-sight operations. FAAs release of this proposed rule for small UAS operations started the process of addressing additional requirements of the 2012 Act. See table 1 for a summary of the rule’s major provisions. FAA has also met additional requirements outlined in the 2012 Act pertaining to the creation of UAS test sites. In December 2013, FAA selected six UAS test ranges. According to FAA, these sites were chosen based on a number of factors including geography, climate, airspace use, and a proposed research portfolio that was part of the application. All UAS operations at a test site must be authorized by FAA through either the use of a COA or an experimental certificate. In addition, there is no funding from FAA to support the test sites. Thus, these sites rely upon revenue generated from entities, such as those in the UAS industry, using the sites for UAS flights. Foreign countries are also experiencing an increase in UAS use, and some have begun to allow commercial entities to fly UASs under limited circumstances. According to industry stakeholders, easier access to testing in these countries’ airspace has drawn the attention of some U.S. companies that wish to test their UASs without needing to adhere to FAA’s administrative requirements for flying UASs at one of the domestically located test sites, or obtaining an FAA COA. It has also led at least one test site to partner with a foreign country where, according to the test site operator, UAS test flights can be approved in 10 days. Since being named in December 2013, the six designated test sites have become operational, applying for and receiving authorization from FAA to conduct test flights. From April 2014 through August 2014, as we were conducting our ongoing work, each of the six test sites became operational and signed an Other Transaction Agreement with FAA. All flights at a test site must be authorized under the authority of a COA or under the authority of an experimental certificate approved by FAA. Since becoming operational in 2014 until March 2015, five of the six test sites received 48 COAs and one experimental certificate in support of UAS operations resulting in over 195 UAS flights across the five test sites. These flights provide operations and safety data to FAA in support of UAS integration. While there are only a few contracts with industry thus far, according to test site operators these are important if the test sites are to remain operational. Table 2 provides an overview of test-site activity since the sites became operational. FAA officials and some test sites told us that progress has been made in part because of FAA’s and sites’ efforts to work together. Test site officials meet every two weeks with FAA officials to discuss current issues, challenges, and progress. According to meeting minutes, these meetings have been used to discuss many issues from training for designated airworthiness representatives to processing of COAs. In addition, test sites have developed operational and safety processes that have been reviewed by FAA. Thus, while FAA has no funding directed to the test sites to specifically support research and development activities, FAA dedicates time and resources to supporting the test sites, and FAA staff we spoke to believe test sites are a benefit to the integration process and worth this investment. According to FAA, its role is to ensure each test site sets up a safe-testing environment and to provide oversight that guarantees each test site operates under strict safety standards. FAA views the test sites as a location for industry to safely access the airspace. FAA told us it expects to collect data obtained from the users of the test ranges that will contribute to the continued development of standards for the safe and routine integration of UASs. The Other Transaction Agreement between FAA and the test sites defines the purpose of the test sites as research and testing in support of safe UAS integration into the national airspace. FAA and the test sites have worked together to define the role of the test sites and see that both the FAA and the test sites are effectively supporting each other and the goal of the test sites, we will continue to examine this progress and will report our final results late this year. As part of our ongoing work, we identified a number of countries that allow commercial UAS operations and have done so for years. In Canada and Australia, regulations pertaining to UAS have been in place since 1996 and 2002, respectively. According to a MITRE study, the types of commercial operations allowed vary by country. For example, as of December 2014, Australia had issued over 180 UAS operating certificates to businesses engaged in aerial surveying, photography, and other lines of business. In Japan, the agriculture industry has used UASs to apply fertilizer and pesticide for over 10 years. Furthermore, several European countries have granted operating licenses to more than 1,000 operators to use UASs for safety inspections of infrastructure, such as rail tracks, or to support the agriculture industry. The MITRE study reported that the speed of change can vary based on a number of factors, including the complexity and size of the airspace and the supporting infrastructure. In addition, according to FAA, the legal and regulatory structures are different and may allow easier access to the airspace in other countries for UAS operations. While UAS commercial operations can occur in some countries, there are restrictions controlling their use.