The well known catch phrases; “What could possibly go wrong?” and “Who could have predicted?” should come to mind when reading about the fast track U.S. domestic drones are on.  Early this year the ACLU was the lone voice lobbying against the move by congress to permit domestic drones. One observer said

“The privacy caucus didn’t even realize until it was passed and they are now playing catch up.”

The ACLU spent $500,000 last quarter lobbying unsuccessfully against the FAA Reauthorization Act that mandated the development of regulations for commercial drones by 2015.One corporation that manufactures drones for the Navy spends 2.2 million lobbying congress. The FAA is reportedly predicting we could see 30,000 drones in US skies in the near future.  

So,while the FAA moves forward on its mandate Sen.Rand Paul has offered a bill that will require warrants for some domestic surveillance drone use. What other evidence of the weak resistance to domestic pilotless drones is needed than when Rand Paul, often called America’s dumbest senator is one of the lone voices of caution.  

Domestic drones at the moment…    

After the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Aviation Administration they released a list that shows 63 authorized US launch sites. Interactive map here.There are 300 active operating licenses out of the 700-750 which have been issued since 2006.Among the list are about 20 state and local governments, 25 universities and colleges, two small mid-western towns and defense contractors. The FAA list does not identify the types of drones in use.

Some investors are predicting pilotless drones could take on everyday Fed-Ex style delivery tasks and there was the West Coast’s Taco-copter hoax (Lobster-copter on the East coast) but until we all get our very own jet packs,

Several big manufacturers of“unmanned aircraft,” as the industry prefers to call them, each spent millions of dollars during the first quarter of this year, in part lobbying for language tucked inside the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration requiring the agency to allow drones into airspace with other planes in the next three years.

Another big push came from the military, which is preparing to bring home drones that were used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under current law, the military is restricted in moving drones around the country and using them for training operations.

The answers to the two questions; “What could possibly go wrong?” and “Who could have predicted?” could prove to be everything could go wrong and had anyone been paying attention everyone might have predicted it.