Other types of unmanned aircraft systems need FAA approval, according to the agency.
An industry representative said the federal government already is regulating unmanned aircraft systems, the name industry uses for the aircraft.
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Air Force leaders are saying the military may already have enough unmanned aircraft systems to wage the wars of the future.
America's Federal Aviation Administration is currently exploring how commercial drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, can be safely introduced into US airspace.
In 2012 the FAA established the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Office to figure out how to certify and regulate drone traffic in U.S. airspace.
AeroVironment also established world altitude records with its solar-electric, unmanned aircraft systems at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands on Kauai.
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"It depends on the mission, but you'll always need to have that critical thinking capability in a pilot, " says Major Rod Secor of the U.S. Army's Unmanned Aircraft Systems division.
The FAA has been working to setup new rules and to safely integrate the use of unmanned aircraft into the national air space, and last year opened an "unmanned aircraft systems integration" office.
Agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military services use the company's battery-powered, hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems to provide situational awareness to tactical operating units through real-time, airborne reconnaissance, surveillance and communication.
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Congress has legislated goals for replacing manned military aircraft with unmanned systems, and every major defense contractor is marketing products that contribute to the trend.
"The (Federal Aviation Administration) strictly regulates who, where, when and why unmanned aircraft will be flown, " said Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
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Aboulafia derides the exaggerated sales expectations that companies have for the systems, noting that his consultancy estimates the value of world unmanned aircraft output today at only 2.5 percent of the amount for manned aircraft, and forecasts it will remain below five percent in 2020.
Andrew Krepinevich, a radical defence analyst whose thinking has been endorsed, in part, by Mr Rumsfeld, cites several weapon systems which deserve higher priority: long-range bombers, missiles and unmanned aircraft, ships designed for coastal warfare, and submarines which can fire cruise missiles.
This concept emphasizes the ability of new weapons, sensors, and unmanned systems to expand the reach, capability and persistence of our current manned ships and aircraft.
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Unmanned aerial systems, sometimes called drones, and other remote-controlled planes could pose a risk to larger passenger aircraft if they collided or were sucked into an engine.
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