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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Sunday, March 3, 2013 | 2 a.m.
Bid team
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development is co-chairing a team of state, military, corporate, environmental and university members, each of whom are contributing their individual expertise to Nevada’s bid to host an FAA domestic drone test site. The team is:
• Steve Hill, Governor’s Office of Economic Development, co-chairman
• Gen. Bill Burks, adjutant general of the Nevada National Guard, co-chairman
• Marc Johnson, president of UNR
• Steve Wells, president of the Desert Research Institute
• Neal Smatresk, president of UNLV
• Joe Brown, Fennemore Craig Jones Vargas
• Ray Juzaitis, NSTec
• Tim Wong, Arcata Associates
• Greg Cox, Sierra Nevada Corp.
• Jeff Fontaine, NAoC
• Leo Drozdoff, Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• Ken Witcher, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Rudy Malfabon, director, NDOT
The Commanding Officers of Nellis AFB, NAS Fallon, and Hawthorne Army Depot also have standing invitations to participate.
Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration announced the start of a national bidding process in which states can compete to host one of six sites for testing unmanned aerial vehicles – drones – intended for use in the United States.
To the victors go an early bite at what experts project will be anything from a $10 billion to $100 billion-a-year industry that, despite lingering controversy over privacy with domestic drones, is all but guaranteed to grow.
More than 30 states have already expressed an interest in applying to host a site, but Nevada’s about as confident as a state can get that it has one of the FAA designations in the bag.
“We think we have quite a bit to offer. … I’m optimistic about the proposal,” said Steve Hill, executive director of the Nevada Governor’s Office Economic Development, which is spearheading a statewide effort to put together a winning bid. “We just see this as a real opportunity for Nevada to get in on the ground floor of something where we really can be a center for an industry that is growing.”
Sun Archives
Hill, who is co-chairing the team drafting Nevada’s bid, chose his words as diplomatically as one must when part of a formal, national bidding process that won’t conclude until the end of the year.
But the truth is, Nevada has been making the hard sell to the federal government for more than a year, enlisting help from the state’s universities, its defense contractors, its military officials and its congressional delegation.
The six FAA drone sites under development have their roots in a law Congress passed in early 2012 to reauthorize FAA programs. Nevada’s chief focus during the drawn-out process of passing that bill was the potential cessation of service to rural airports and the interruption of funds to support rampant expansion at McCarran International Airport.
But alongside those provisions was a direction to the FAA to develop standards for licensing operators to fly drones in commercial airspace by the end of September 2015.
The states selected as hosts to the test sites will get an early jump on that clearance – and with it, a chance to attract the best UAV developers and manufacturers to set up shop in the Silver State.
“If we can be certified, that would then lead to the potential of future economic development related to UAVs in the state,” said Alan Gertler, vice president at the Desert Research Institute, one of three major research centers in Nevada participating in the state’s official bid. “Given Nevada’s economy, it’s critical that we look for additional areas of economic development.”
The FAA designation would fit neatly into Nevada’s efforts to diversify economically. Meanwhile, architects of the proposal feel there is plenty Nevada can offer the federal government.
Switch, a high-tech company that started 11 years ago in Las Vegas, now houses digital data for a number of Fortune 500 companies and the U.S. government in its expansive facilities.
“There is already a commercial industry here in Nevada – it’s not huge, but the commercial industry in UAVs is not huge anywhere,” Hill said. “Drones are also a very data-intensive environment, and we have the IT infrastructure to support that, in places like the Switch data center in Las Vegas.”
The federal government already relies on the source of Nevada’s technical expertise: Switch, which has built a reputation as one of the country’s most secure data facilities, is equipped to manage the massive inflows of electronic information collected by drone surveillance.
Nevada also boasts one of the country’s most experienced team of drone operators: Military retirees who once worked at Creech Air Force Base, manning the service’s first fleet of drones.
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The FAA bid has nothing to do with the military – the drones the FAA hopes to regulate would instead be destined for use in emergency response, environmental exploration, agriculture, and yes, surveillance – a last point that has organizations like the ACLU and activists in various states and municipalities attempting to prevent drones from operating overhead.
The Nevada Legislature isn’t considering any such proposals from the ACLU, which removes the hurdle of those who say drone licensure would lead at best to a complete loss of privacy; at worst, to the type of over-surveillance characteristic of a police state.
And the fact that Nevada plays host to a test and training range for the military’s drones may be the state’s strongest selling point for becoming the proving ground for commercial UAVs.
“We have probably by far the largest airspace in any state that’s available,” Hill said, adding that Nevada’s vast uninhabited federal land also muted any privacy concerns that would come with a drone testing site.
“In order to test the UAVs at different altitudes, it takes some distance in order to achieve the altitudes desired,” Hill said. “Unless somebody in a different state is going to want to corkscrew up and then back down, the fact that we can fly for hundreds of miles is an obvious benefit.”
Nevada has the largest expanses of restricted airspace anywhere in the continental United States. The bid-making team, led by Hill and Nevada National Guard Adjutant-General Bill Burks, imagines an operation zone that would reach from Northern Nevada base points at Stead Airport near Reno and Fallon Naval Base, and extend southwards through rural areas of the state.
The plan is to use a combination of restricted airspace and contiguous commercial airspace for the drone tests.
“The folks in our office and the military and sort of the panel who work on this on a regular basis have spent a lot of time coordinating that effort,” Hill said.
A representative from Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases responded, but ultimately did not answer the Sun’s questions about how the military was assisting the governor’s office with its bid.
But those making the pitch planned a collaborative approach from the beginning.
“We had Nevada in mind” when the legislation was being written in committee and voted on in Congress, Sen. Harry Reid’s spokeswoman said, though she stressed that the drone testing program requirements were not tailored to any particular state.
The FAA’s program requirements do instruct that a state-sponsored entity must make the bids to host the sites. But Nevada’s full-court press of multiple state-level agencies, federal and military partners, and private corporations is an orchestrated approach.
For the past several months, Reid has been using the power of the majority leader’s office to get the governor’s office on the same page, not just with the delegation but with the FAA itself.
“He has stayed engaged, setting up meetings between Gov. Brian Sandoval’s office and the FAA – including meetings with the administrator and the individual responsible for the bidding process,” Reid’s spokeswoman said.
The meetings are more access than most bidding states will have to the FAA, and is a perk of having the Senate Majority Leader in Nevada’s corner.
But it also illustrates just how important the FAA designation is to get this industry going.
Hill and others have pledged that Nevada will pursue the development of a domestic drone industry, with or without the FAA’s official blessing.
“What it would be, I don’t want to be too flippant here, but it’s kind of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval,” Hill said. “We don’t need it. We would like it.”
“That’s the beauty of it: Because we have the restricted airspace, we don’t need the FAA’s permission,” said Nevada Rep. Joe Heck, an enthusiastic booster of Nevada’s bid. “That allows us to do a lot of this work without being one of the designated pilot programs.”
The FAA designation comes with no money, meaning it will be incumbent on Nevadans to build a commercial industry from the ground up, with or without the FAA designation.
But the scientists involved, who are used to navigating the delicate nexus of federal permissions and contracts, say without the FAA’s nod, the state will be sorely at a disadvantage -- because of competition.
“It’s crucial,” Gertler said. “Why would Boeing, for example, come do anything here if we don’t have the certification? You’ve got to go to a place that’s certified.”
But Gertler doesn’t want to be mistaken -- he’s feeling pretty good about Nevada’s overall chances at a winning bid.
“Nothing’s ever a lock,” Gertler said. “But Nevada has a unique combination of resources that can make this happen.”
New York would be a better place for the drone base, the drones could look for people drinking soda and carrying guns.
1984? Big brother? Spying on your own citizens? Listening in on all electronic conversations through an outside party to get around US law? Torchure?
Prison without a day in court?
Sounds like freedom is only an illusion. You are only free to do what they want you to do. e.i.
Be a consumer and economic slave!
Puny assault rifles.. i want a Drone..
Great. Nevada is already a dump place for radioactive waste of all origin, and now a test field for those death angels? It would be only a matter of time, when a drone would be hacked, would malfunction or develop its own intelligence, and as a result, hellfire-rockets could hit the strip. Who wants that? I say, no, thank you, take the drones to Alaska or somewhere else.
This is the perfect place. We have the land, the open air space and the technology already in place.
Would be a great addition and jobs for Nevada. We can do High Tech.
Sounds like the thing to do. Now if we can do something about the drug-sniffing choppers flying low over residential areas in the night...
I was driving by Creech AFB last fall and saw drones practicing "touch and gos" on their runways. Might be the foot in the door Nevada can certainly use right now. "Tech Me!" could be a positive motto for NV. Anything but gaming gibberish.
@Elvegas. Yes that is entirely possible. Multiple drones may even come together and create a transformer. My my would that be scary. I say no as well.
Now pass the crack pipe.
What a wonderful uplifting news story about politicians working together to get something done to help the economy for Nevada! I applaud their extensive efforts and the behind the scenes cooperation and organization to move this forward. It sounds as though they have put us far ahead of the pack and Reid is definitely in a sweet seat to push this through.
All naysayers and paranoid detractors belong in the same category as those who wanted to stop trains, planes, phones, computers, fiber optics, satellites, space programs, and other forms of progress: Boogey Man Believers
To them I say "take a pill" and get over it.
10 to 100 billion dollars per year? This just doesn't add up. For the last two weeks, we have been given dire consequences for cutting 85 billion dollars. Thousands of illegals being set free, first responders let go, meat inspections not done properly and on and on. Yet, with all the reported need out there, a program like this moves forward? If this government was my spouse, I would cut up all of their credit cards.
Here comes the police state. Glad ya'll are welcoming it. Ignorance is strong among this crowd.
Police state ???? How sad.
Bring on the drones and a little intelligence. Leave the Black Helicopters at home.
Now all we need is Yucca and we will be the most prosperous State in the Union.
@frischee: Fiction and Reality often don't go different ways. Jules Verne wrote about a trip to the Moon. What happened? Man went to the Moon and it was a good thing. But You wrote about Drones, coming together and forming a Transformer. You see, it is not the question, if something will be built, but when. Today, we think, that Pilots can fly a Drone better, than actually sitting inside the plane, beeing not only susceptible for G-Force, but also experiencing the death thread. In a few years, we will think, that a computer can control the Drones in a way more effective way, and they will, a few years later, we will think, that all Drone controlling Comupters should be linked to one System, and we might call that System "Skynet". and "Skynet" would control all these Drones, which we would call "Terminators", to protect us all from ... from what?
@Heretic
Sad? What do you think these drones are going to be used for? Traffic updates and helping old people cross the road? Nope. Sure, the private sector could use them for some good, but they're (govt) already using them to police the skies in ND. Step away from all the fox/msnbc/main stream media and think for yourself. Do some searching on the wonderful thing called internet and see what these drones are mainly used for and what they'll more than likely be used for in the near future. These things are already liquidating innocent brown people across the globe. To me, these surveillance aircraft, if ever used in American airspace on civies, is an infringement of our 4th amendment.
Juice, sorry you feel the paranoia.
911 actually happened and we landed on the moon.
I like how the American people need to pay to test the drones when they have been tested for years in many other countries across the globe.
Makes no sense?
What a waste of money.
hahaha Boogey Man Believers!
Trap shooting..."Pull!...whoosh..kablooey"
Skeets hooting.."Pull!..whoosh..whoosh..kablooey..kablooey
Drone shooting "Look!..WTF? whoosh KABLOOOEY
This is indeed a sad time to be an American.
I have eight children (including step-children) and nine grand-children (so far.) I feel sorry for them.
The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that in 20 years, as many as 30,000 drones could be flying the skies over America, doing everything from promoting local restaurants to executing warrantless snooping for local, state, and federal cops. It isn't paranoid to oppose domestic drones--it is common sense.
It is troubling that as long as people are told these things are only here to thwart some existential threat, not only will the people tolerate these things, they'll welcome them. People are stupid that way.
Due to Nevada's backlash over Yucca, you can forget the drone program ever comming here just out of spite.
NE Washington, where I live, and North Idaho are fertile ground for the survivalist contingent. I suspect that if the County sheriffs proposed using drones the locals would consider them suitable for sighting in scopes prior to hunting season. I'm not sure how drones might be considered "progress" in the same manner as fiber-optics or satellites. Seems an intellectual stretch to me.
More industry for Nevada? How long until harry reid puts the kaybash on this plan?
Domestic drone usage is ill-conceived, elitist, and end-runs our inherent Constitutional protections.
Here are two (2), very well-produced, videos that anchor my points:
Emmy Award-winning newscaster Shad Olson's 'The Great Drone Debate', featuring US Senator John Thune:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssoOASanK...
Here's a mind-blowing, well-done animated short that really captures our collective angst that if the road to hades is paved with good intentions, then domestic drones are a superhighway to an Orwellian panoptic gulag.
http://vimeo.com/59689349
For national security purposes, Americans are already subject to warrant-less wiretaps of calls and emails, the warrant-less GPS "tagging" of their vehicles, the domestic use of Predators or other spy-in-the-sky drones, and the Department of Homeland Security's monitoring of all our behavior through "data fusion centers."
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03...
America's promise has always been the power of the many to rule, instead of the one. Ungoverned drone usage, particularly domestically, gives power to the one.