Re:Sorry, but what civilian activity can possibly justify UAVs ?

@Pascal Monett

Your suggestion of parcel carriers might possibly be true, but there are other situations in which case it would be useful for the presence of UAVs to be known by Air Traffic Controllers and the like.

At the moment, as far as I understand it, they don't have any knowledge of any UAVs that might be operating, and as such it's unfeasible to use them in large numbers without being hazardous to any human piloted traffic that might be present, plus there are limits on how useful they can be.

I imagine they'll prove to be useful for filming events, i.e. motor racing / horse racing - currently aerial observation is fairly expensive, besides the cost of the helicopter / plane itself, you have to hire a pilot and a camera man. This could all be done away with by a self flying plane with perhaps a remotely operated camera or a camera system that latches onto specific vehicles. Either way, this is one application where it would make sense to commercialize the use of UAVs.

I think you may be mistaken in your interpretation of them as civilian - civil airspace is what applies to everyone, commercial or private, and there are lots of possible commercial uses.

@ Anonymous

I assume that military and civilian aircraft would have to be marked separately as is the usual process at the moment, so I'm not sure how you could justify that they're trying to hide their own UAVs in with the civilian UAVs. Besides, I'm sure some form of bureaucracy would limit that scenario anyway.