08 Sep 17. U.N. aviation agency to call for global drone registry. The United Nations’ aviation agency is backing the creation of a single global drone registry, as part of broader efforts to come up with common rules for flying and tracking unmanned aircraft.
While the International Civil Aviation Organization cannot impose regulations on countries, ICAO has proposed formation of the registry during a Montreal symposium this month to make data accessible in real time, said Stephen Creamer, director of ICAO’s air navigation bureau.
The single registry would eschew multiple databases in favor of a one-stop-shop that would allow law enforcement to remotely identify and track unmanned aircraft, along with their operator and owner.
The initiative comes at a time when drone usage is soaring in the United States, Europe and China, raising privacy concerns and fears of collisions with commercial jets.
“You’ve got to have some commonality so that you’re not carrying five receivers in your police car,” Creamer said in an interview on Thursday.
It’s not yet clear who would operate such a database, although ICAO could possibly fill that role. The proposal, however, could face push back from users, after hobbyists successfully challenged the creation of a U.S. drone registry by the Federal Aviation Administration in court earlier this year.
ICAO will host the symposium from Sept 22-23 on issues like registering and tracking drones, along with geofencing-like systems to prevent their operation in restricted areas. The talks will be at an event attended by experts and companies like Google, Rockwell Collins (COL.N) and Amazon.com (AMZN.O), according to the meeting program schedule.
Montreal-headquartered ICAO, which normally sets standards for international civil aviation that are adopted by its 191-member countries, was asked to assist in the development of more uniform domestic drone regulations because the remotely-piloted aircraft are sold and flown globally.
“They (drone makers) are worried that Europe might create one set of standards, United States might do a second and China might do a third. And they’ve got to build a drone differently in these different environments,” Creamer said.
Parimal Kopardekar, a principal investigator for Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) at the NASA Ames Research Center in California said he supported the drone industry developing around the world with common operating standards.
“I think it’s smart that ICAO is trying to harmonize it,” he said by phone.
“If you have a drone that you build in one country you should be able to use it in another country and vice versa.” (Source: Reuters)
08 Sep 17. Report: Vietnam’s defence spending to cross $7bn mark by 2022.
The defence spending of Vietnam is anticipated to be $5bn in 2018 and is expected to reach $7.1bn by 2022, at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.08%, according to a report by Strategic Defence Intelligence (SDI).
Titled ‘Future of the Vietnam defense Industry – Market Attractiveness, Competitive Landscape and Forecasts to 2022’, the report provides an analysis of the defence spending patterns of Vietnam.
Vietnam’s capital expenditure is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.88%, while revenue expenditure is expected to record a CAGR of 6.68% over the forecast period. The increase in the nation’s defence expenditure is expected to be driven by territorial conflicts in the South China Sea and military modernisations plans to replace its existing obsolete equipment.
Vietnam plans to acquire a number of fighter and multi-role aircraft, naval ships, patrol vessels, maritime patrol aircraft, submarines and surveillance equipment in the near future.
In addition, slow population growth is anticipated to raise per capita defence spending from $53.4 in 2017 to $72.5 by 2022, the report notes.
(Source: naval-technology.com)
08 Sep 17. Report: Vietnamese defence industry attractive for foreign OEMs. Vietnam largely reli