Having failed in its effort to enforce drone pilot registration, the Federal Aircraft Administration is now looking at creating a remote identification system that would allow drones in the air to be identified from the ground.

The FAA first attempted to force registration on pilots of drones weighing over a half-pound in November 2015 as a backdoor method of drone registration. Pilots would be required to be registered to fly the drone and their pilot registration number would have to be displayed on the side of any drone they’re flying. The regulation came into effect just before Christmas 2015. But the law only managed to last until May this year when the Federal Court struck them down as being in breach of a law that read that the FAA “may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft.”

The new proposal, which is only being discussed at this stage, would involve the FAA requiring that all drones over a half-pound have an identification device on them that would allow a government official on the ground to identify to whom the drone belonged. As Recode points out, that would also require a registration process for hobby drones as well. Although it’s not currently legal, it may once again become legal because Congress is looking at reforming the law that prevents the FAA from doing so.

No official word has come from Congress or the Trump administration on the proposal, but remotely tracking drones would be complementary to a proposal from the White House that would allow law enforcement officials to shoot down drones. The proposed law would allow the government to summarily track, seize control of and use force to destroy “any unmanned aircraft it determines may pose a security threat to an area designated for special protection.” A non-registered, non-identifiable drone could easily be deemed a security threat under such legislation.

The FAA’s “UAS Identification and Tracking Aviation Rulemaking Committee” held its first meeting June 21-23 and is expected to meet again on a regular basis to further discuss the implementation of tracking methods. The group includes a range of industry and government stakeholders, including Amazon.com Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and the New York Police Department.

Image: Stefan Niedermayr/Wikimedia Commons