FAA Resources

UAS Detection Initiative

Pilots regularly report seeing UAS in flight, which is a serious safety concern for the FAA. In October 2015, the FAA entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with CACI International to evaluate their technology's ability to detect and identify small UAS in the vicinity of airports. A team of engineers from the FAA, the Department of Homeland Security, and CACI conducted 141 test operations over five days at the Atlantic City Airport from January to February 2016.

In May 2016, the FAA expanded its detection initiative by signing CRDAs with Gryphon Sensors, Liteye Systems Inc., and Sensofusion to evaluate the companies’ prototype UAS detection systems.

The FAA also began partnering with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in May 2016 to evaluate a different UAS detection technology.

Original content for this page gathered from: https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/uas_detection_initiative/