Thank you all for the replies! As discouraging as some of them might be, I need to keep chugging along for the sake of the assignment.
From what I understand, it would very, if not impossible, for a pilot to accept such a system unless it has been tested through and through - and even then, it's still somewhat illogical.
I should have been more specific when talking about UAVs. I was specifically talking about civil/private operations (obviously outside of the con US for now). Do you think that, considering the lack of a pilot and the high interest in limiting damage to a high value asset, commercial entities might be interested in something that allows for a last resort?