UNMANNED VEHICLES: State is called perfect place to determine their uses.
WASHINGTON -- John Madden, deputy director for Alaska's division of homeland
security, envisions that one day unmanned aerial vehicles will fly over Alaska routinely,
making the state safer and advancing science, sometimes during the same flight.
In the meantime, Alaska should be the nation's testing ground for these craft, known
as UAS, or Unmanned Aerial Systems, Madden and other witnesses said Thursday at
a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee. "Only in Alaska can we test the full
range of potential missions of UAS without immediately confronting the complex airspace
found in most of the rest of the country," he testified. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska,
and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, were the only senators who attended the hearing,
which was specifically about the use of these craft in Alaska and the Pacific region.
UAS are pilotless aircraft that can be as small as eagles or as large as military
bombers. The armed forces have been using them for surveillance and to fire missiles,
but as the technology develops, civilian agencies are considering a host of missions
for them.
Here was Madden's vision of a hypothetical day in the life of a UAS in Alaska: A
long-range aircraft launches from its base in Southcentral Alaska to drop weather
sensors over the Arctic Ocean. Along the way its cameras film the trans-Alaska oil
pipeline and sends the images to the pipeline security headquarters. Then the folks
at ground control get word from the Alaska State Troopers that a boat is missing
on the Yukon River, so they divert the craft. The images it sends back help the
troopers focus their search. Then it's on to the North Slope, where it films a caribou
herd to aid wildlife researchers and keeps an eye on the Prudhoe Bay oil fields
before getting to its Arctic Ocean work. On the way home, it pretends to be a commercial
aircraft violating military airspace near Fairbanks, to keep the FAA and Air Force
on their toes. Other errands include checking out a wildfire near Nenana and monitoring
part of the Alaska Railroad.
But little of that is possible now. For one thing, pilots of small airplanes are
worried about having to share airspace with the pilotless craft. The FAA, too, has
been concerned about the risk to people on the ground and to other aircraft. The
agency has been allowing some UAS to fly -- 55 this year -- but only for particular
missions in specific areas.
Sometimes, the UAS don't live up to expectations. In November 2003, with an appropriation
Stevens made possible, the Coast Guard tested unmanned Predators, launching them
from King Salmon with hopes of eventually using them to monitor the Bering Sea fishing
grounds and the maritime border. Four of five flights had to be canceled because
of weather, Rear Adm. Wayne Justice testified. An engine wouldn't start, they had
no de-icing system, and visibility was too poor. A second test, in July 2004, also
encountered problems. Ten of 17 Alaska flights, remotely piloted from a ground control
station in San Diego, were canceled because of weather. "The (aircraft) never made
it to either the maritime boundary line or the high-seas driftnet area," the admiral
testified. "In fact, the (craft) was not able to make a 360-degree turn anywhere
within the Alaskan region due to the possibility of losing communications with the
satellite."
At the time, Alaska's U.S. senators had nothing but praise for the craft for flying
over wildfires in Alaska's Interior. "I am pleased to learn the Predator was able
to contribute to fighting the worst fires Alaska has seen in years," Stevens said
in a July 2004 press release. "It proves the Predator's capability in a variety
of roles beyond those which they are being tested in Alaska."
Thursday, Stevens asked the witnesses to contact him if they thought of ways federal
law could be changed to encourage UAS testing and use in Alaska. In past years,
when he was chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he would often earmark funds
for new programs he thought would work well in Alaska. But these days, as chairman
of the Commerce Committee, he doesn't have the same control over the appropriations
bills, and the atmosphere on Capitol Hill has not been friendly for lawmakers fond
of spending millions for projects in their home states.
Daily News reporter Liz Ruskin can be reached at
lruskin@adn.com
or in Washington at 1-202-383-0007.