Domestic Use of Drones Already In Progress Surely to Increase Exponentially

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones were designed for military purposes; however, as the barrage of legislation unleashed since 9/11  that, for the most part, greatly empowers our government against us, leaving  the very distinct impression that United States, Inc. is at war with the United States of America, continues, and as "geriatric jihadists," or "waffle house terrorists" who can barely make it up a flight of stairs, are being spied on, assaulted and locked up for thought crimes they're not even capable of,  utilization of these "under the radar" aircraft in civilian airspace should come as no surprise.  If you happen to be a private pilot, watch out! These stealthy things could be lurking just about anywhere. 

Anyway, the Army issued a new directive to govern the growing use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones within the U.S. for training missions and "domestic operations”  (the maps above and below, taken from this 2010 report, clearly show the present and future UAS locations). Army Directive 2012-02 is a revised policy on UAS operations to support “expanded UAS access to the National Airspace System.”

But this is nothing new.  Since 2010 the FAA had already issued hundreds of “certificates of authorization” (COAs) for the domestic use of drones.

“Right now, today as we sit here, we have 251 certificates of authorization for unmanned aircraft, 140 of them are DOD related. We have not rejected or denied any DOD COAs in 2010, and we keep moving forward.” -- Hank Krakowski of the FAA at an informative Senate hearing in September 2010.

As EFF attorney, Jennifer Lynch says, "The use of drones in American airspace could dramatically increase the physical tracking of citizens – tracking that can reveal deeply personal details about our private lives.”

Links:

The OTHER Assault on the Fourth Amendment in the NDAA? Drones at Your Airport?

Journal of National Security Law and Policy