Unmanned Aircraft: The Rising Risk of Hostile Takeover [Leading Edge]

Abstract

The use of unmanned aircraft also known as drones is increasing in U.S. national airspace and the numbers will rise exponentially once the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) formally opens up the skies to drones in the next few years. The result will be the addition of tens of thousands of unmanned aircraft in the sky, in addition to the ever increasing manned aircraft traffic, resulting in significant safety concerns. A threat to safety that is commonly overlooked when operating an unmanned aircraft is the threat of a hostile takeover. A hostile third party can wreak havoc in the skies with a malicious drone traversing the airspace with ominous intentions. Whether of portentous terrorist origins or merely a young experimenter testing their technical prowess, a third party controlled drone can work its way into the intake of a jetliner potentially bringing it down, or negotiate its way across the skies, ultimately crashing on innocent bystanders. The range of potential damage and human injury is considerable.