The Federal Aviation Administration has carved out no-drone zones over 133 military facilities in the U.S. as the government steps up efforts to marshal what potentially could be millions of small commercial and recreational drones entering the airspace in the next few years. Drone flights from the surface to 400 feet above the facilities are prohibited as of April 14, the agency said.
The action represents the first time the FAA has instituted airspace restrictions that apply only to drones, the agency said in an April 6 announcement. It cited a federal regulation—14 CFR 99.7 Special Security Instructions—as giving it the authority. The provision, which dates to 2004, requires that “each person operating an aircraft in an ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) or defense area must…comply with special security instructions issued by the Administrator in the interest of national security, pursuant to agreement between the FAA and the Department of Defense, or between the FAA and a U.S. federal security or intelligence agency.”

In its latest aerospace forecast released in March, the FAA predicted that the fleet of small drones operated by hobbyists could more than triple in size from an estimated 1.1 million vehicles last year to more than 3.5 million units by 2021. The fleet of commercial drones could grow from 42,000 vehicles in 2016 to somewher between 442,000 and 1.6 million. The agency said it provided high and low ranges to reflect “uncertainty about the public’s continued adoption of this new technology.”

Under an application process outlined in short-term reauthorization legislation that became law last July, the FAA said it is considering additional requests from federal security and intelligence agencies to restrict or prohibit flights of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) “in close proximity to a fixed-site facility.”

The agency issued a Notice to Airmen (Notam) explaining the airspace restrictions and provided a link to an online interactive map with UAS-specific information that depicts flight-restricted areas as red polygons. It has also provided a link to the restrictions on its “B4UFLY” mobile application.

But Jonathan Rupprecht, an aviation attorney and flight instructor based in West Palm Beach, Florida, found the FAA’s notification effort lacking for restrictions that carry the possibility of civil or criminal penalties for commercial drone pilots operating under the FAA’s Part 107 regulation and hobbyists flying under Part 101. Hobbyists at present must register with the FAA. Part 101 provides guidelines for safely operating model aircraft and drones, but gives the FAA latitude to decide if a drone is operated “in a manner that endangers the safety” of the National Airspace System.