Assessing the risks of drones and unmanned aerial systems

About the UAS report

This paper places UAS risk and its associated mitigation strategies in the broader context of the UAS ecosystem. It also offers techniques for organizations to update existing risk management strategies, as well as enable the development of new ones to proactively address increasing UAS risk, both as a user and as an organization seeking to confront threats, challenges, and circumstances posed by other UAS users.

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What are the risks associated with UAS?

There are myriad ways to look at risk and risk management, evidenced by the various definitions used by sources of authority on the topic.

Generally, the types of risks fall into one of three buckets—hazard/threat risk, control risk, and opportunity risk. The primary focus area looking at UAS risk in the current state of the UAS ecosystem is the uncertainty associated with managing the threat level associated with UAS. This could come from either malicious actors—who see the threat potential of UAS and exploit them for nefarious purposes or commercial gain—or unintentional actors, who pose a hazard to infrastructure.

The bottom line is that risk creates uncertainty, and risk management is an integral part of organizations that seek to "protect people, equipment, and other resources while making the most effective use of them."¹ Given the current state and maturity of the UAS ecosystem, greater emphasis is placed on the threats that UAS pose to an organization, and how to develop an approach to mitigate their associated risks.

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Tailored UAS risk solutions

UAS risks create the need for customizable solutions to proactively protect assets and quickly respond to an entity’s unique threats and opportunities.

Building on this foundational understanding of UAS threats, risk managers and those charged with protecting physical assets and managing the operations of UAS should choose a risk-intelligent management approach that best fits their unique circumstances and needs. The solutions described below are not meant to serve as an exhaustive list, but rather describes some of the most applicable UAS risk management solutions for a broad range of sectors.

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The impact of UAS risk

As UAS proliferation continues, risk management professionals tasked with managing the safety and security of their organization’s assets and personnel will face an increasingly complex risk environment.

The responsibility of analyzing and mitigating risks extends beyond a single agency or entity—it requires an ecosystem approach. A collective effort is necessary to support the adoption of this new technology, taking into account emerging and future UAS applications, implications, and risks. Considering the proliferation of UAS operations and advances in technology, both the risk and the opportunities from UAS will continue to grow.

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