Our program is consistent with the Government’s whole-of-government policy development approach to emerging aviation technologies.
The emerging technologies program complements the Government's Aviation White Paper → Towards 2050. It also complements whole of government initiatives such as:
- Australian Future Airspace Framework (AFAF)
- maturation of noise and privacy regulation
- Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) Action Plan.
We will continue developing policy guidance in line with the work of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other aviation safety regulators.
Principles
It is challenging to chart a long-term plan for regulating emerging aviation technologies and systems.
Emerging aviation technologies span a broad range of systems and capabilities at different stages of maturity.
The scale and the pace of deployment of these technologies and systems are uncertain. We may see these new technologies and systems deployed on aircraft of varying sizes, types and complexity.
The risk profile of the associated sector is as diverse as the range of systems and their operations.
The RPAS and AAM Roadmap identifies principles for a regulatory response to RPAS and AAM. They apply to how we regulate these emerging aviation technologies and systems more broadly. CASA will consider whether the Roadmap should be expanded to include other emerging technologies that are not related to the RPAS and AAM sectors.
We must have a flexible and responsive regulatory framework to keep pace with evolving developments. This will allow us to scale regulatory processes to respond to increasing volumes of demand from industry. To build in this flexibility and scalability we have considered requirements for our activities through the following time horizons:
- Immediate Term (0-2 years) – 2024 to 2026
- Near Term (2-5 years) – 2027 to 2029
- Medium Term (5-10 years) – 2030 to 2033
- Long Term (10-15 years) – beyond 2034.