DRONES

Drones in the security sector: trends, technology and legislation

Expected to be worth about $43 billion by 2024, according to Statista1, although predications vary – the sky is literally the limit for the global commercial drones market.

Already being utilised in almost every industry imaginable, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly referred to as a drone, is just scratching the surface of its potential, says Goldman Sachs2. “Like the internet and GPS before them, drones are evolving beyond their military origin to become powerful business tools. They’ve already made the leap to the consumer market, and now they’re being put to work in commercial and civil government applications (which is) creating a market opportunity that’s too large to ignore.”

It’s a market that has the potential to bolster South Africa’s ailing economy, says Irvin Phenyane, chairman of the Drone Council of South Africa (DCSA)3. “The accelerated growth of the drone industry is paramount to the economic growth of our country,” he said at the launch of the Council in mid-2019. In his inaugural speech, Phenyane said South Africa’s “sluggish” response to global drone trends had put the country on the back foot regarding lost investment opportunities, despite it being the first African country to approve RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) regulations. As a result, the Council has come up with an initiative called Operation Catch-Up 2023, which includes, among its priorities, helping to grow South Africa’s drone market share to at least five per cent of the global drone economy.

The elephant in the room

Growing South Africa’s drone sector, however, comes with some major challenges. DroneBlogger, in an article titled “Let’s make history lest we be history” on the DroneNews.Africa website4 says that, while the country has a “vibrant drone value chain”, it’s being driven by private players, with very little support from government. Calling this lack of governmental backing “the glaring elephant in the room”, Droneblogger says that while stateowned Sentech recently invited tenders for the supply of drones to patrol South Africa’s borders, government involvement with drone technology is mostly at regulatory level.

According to Goldman Sachs Research, drone technology is now at a point where it’s safer, more durable and cheaper than manned aircraft. As for the future, “the next generation of drones will widen the gap between manned and unmanned flight even further, adding greater stealth, sensory, payload, range, autonomous, and communications capabilities,” it believes.

In its July 2020 report, “A Comprehensive Review of Applications of Drone Technology in the Mining Industry”5, published on the MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) website, the authors highlight the evolution of the UAV, noting some of the key developments around its industrial applications. These, according to the report, go back to the 1860s, when balloons were used to take photos for remote sensing purposes, in the early 1900s, with the deployment of pigeons carrying breast-mounted aerial cameras for photography, and in the early stages of World War 1 with the development of aerial torpedoes.

Today, drones are widely used in civilian and military applications and missions, thanks to their ability to carry missionspecific acoustic, visual, chemical, or biological sensors, the report states. Improved design has led to enhanced performance and efficiency, and diverse capabilities, with drones now grouped into nine categories that include fixedwing, flapping wing, rotary-wing, tilt-rotor, ducted fan, helicopter, ornithopter and unconventional.

Airspace security trends in 2021

IFSEC International, an annual trade fair and conference for the global security industry, published an article on its website in December last year titled: “Eye in the sky: Airspace security trends to watch out for in 2021”6. The fastest growth opportunity comes from businesses and civil governments. They’re just beginning to explore the possibilities, but we expect they’ll spend $13 billion on drones between now and 2020, putting thousands of them in the sky. Here’s where you might see them7. Quoting the findings of a report by Coherent Market Insights, which predicts that the drone market is in for significant growth over the next few years, IFSEC’s article identifies specific areas such as the increasing adoption of drone applications by defence and government, favourable regulations and standards, and applications that support smart city safety and crowd management.

Also in the IFSEC article is an interview with Amit Samani, VP of Americas and UK, Sales at Dedrone, who is expecting drone usage to rise exponentially on the back of the global Covid-19 pandemic. By way of explanation, he says that drones can assist business owners with maintaining social distancing in the workplace as well as supporting areas such as inspection, delivery and surveillance.

Samani envisages an increase in disrupted events at airports, stadiums and other open-air facilities as more and more “bad actors” capitalise on their power to harm business reputations through disruption or by exploiting vulnerabilities, as happened with the drone that disrupted a major league baseball game in August 2020 – despite Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that prohibit unmanned aircraft from flying within a radius of three nautical miles of MLB stadia an hour before and an hour after a game.

Among the emerging security threats for 2021 is “drone blackmail”, he continues, with bad actors capitalising on the threat of downtime at critical infrastructure sites such as airlines. As drone technology advances, he warns, “airspace security programmes will need to increase, not only the scope of types of consumer and commercial drones to detect, but also ensure that drone swarms can be detected as reliably as a single drone. Especially for defense organisations, the smaller threat could be a single drone, but terrorists, criminals and other bad actors will challenge drone detection systems by evading detection, either through developing technology that is difficult to detect, or flying multiple drones in a single instance, such as was observed at the Palo Verde nuclear power plant, or the “mysterious drone swarm” in Colorado, which prompted months of speculation and investigation, but no answers.”

Drones in the security industry

USA-based DARTdrones8 says that aerial surveillance is a critical component in areas that require heightened security and monitoring or speedy real-time response, hence the increasing use of drones in the security industry. Equipped with thermal imaging capabilities, drones are ideal for night time or low-light surveillance, able to provide high-definition imagery for either immediate action or storage.

Drones are also being used to investigate security threats, evaluate critical situations and assist with determining appropriate response measures to fires, traffic incidents and other disasters thanks to their ability to access a scene in a fraction of the time that it would take human personnel, says the company. And there are many more benefits, too. From a cost point of view, a drone costs substantially less than other traditional methods of aerial imaging; with vibration dampening and brushless motors, new drones can operate with far less noise than older models – a “clear advantage when monitoring is called for in response to intrusions at, or around, a given facility”; and they are able to respond rapidly to events or remote locations.

Drone law in South Africa and the rest of the world

Drone law in South Africa is both interesting and complex, says Michalsons Attorneys9. “South Africa is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which is working with member states to create an international regulatory framework for drones using Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS). The flying of drones in the South African airspace had been unregulated and essentially illegal. Initially, the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) responded by clamping down on drones already operating in the South African civil aviation airspace. But now, SACAA has collaborated with the drone industry and formulated regulations to deal with this rapidly expanding industry. These regulations have been adopted by the Minister of Transport and may be found in Part 101 of the South African Civil Aviation Regulations. They came into force on 1 July 2015, and South Africa became one of the first countries to have comprehensive drone law. This placed South Africa as a world leader in drone regulation, and many other countries have followed suit.

Elsewhere in the world, UAV legislation is also evolving to accommodate trends and threats. Notably, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) introduced new legislation in December 2020, with the result that EU member countries, as well as the United Kingdom, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway, will now fall under this blanket legislation.

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/878018/ global-commercial-drone-market-size/

2. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/ technology-driving-innovation/drones/

3. https://www.dronecouncil.africa/about-us/

4. https://dronenews.africa/sa-drone-council-letsmake-history-lest-we-be-history/?fbclid=IwAR1 E7UMJe6Aw7piJ03RO9yKHMAAJkGUYbbrsM5 AoC2VVEB6NA9wS4c_igbg

5. https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/4/3/34

6. https://www.ifsecglobal.com/drones/eye-in-thesky-airspace-security

7. https://www.ifsecglobal.com/drones/eye-inthe-sky-airspace-security-trends-to-watch-outfor-2021/

8. https://www.dartdrones.com/security-drones/

9. https://www.michalsons.com/blog/drone-lawin-south-africa/16543