Air carrier flight crew reports sighting a uav in close proximity during a visual approach.

Narrative:

We were on a visual approach; on about a 5 NM right base. I was flying; captain was pilot not flying. As we were flying on the approach; the captain suddenly noticed a small flying object which he later described as a camouflage painted uav; due to his experience in the military with them; it was easily identifiable for him. I never saw the uav; nor got any TCAS TA or RA; as they do not show up. He notified ATC as soon as practicable and safely within our fom guidelines. I continued on with the approach and landed as normal. We did not encounter any damage because of the uav as it wasn't in our flight path I believe. I'm not sure why the event occurred. I can only guess it was poor planning and communication between the control tower at ZZZ airport and the military entity operating the uav.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reports sighting a UAV in close proximity during a visual approach.

Narrative: We were on a visual approach; on about a 5 NM right base. I was flying; Captain was pilot not flying. As we were flying on the approach; the Captain suddenly noticed a small flying object which he later described as a camouflage painted UAV; due to his experience in the military with them; it was easily identifiable for him. I never saw the UAV; nor got any TCAS TA or RA; as they do not show up. He notified ATC as soon as practicable and safely within our FOM guidelines. I continued on with the approach and landed as normal. We did not encounter any damage because of the UAV as it wasn't in our flight path I believe. I'm not sure why the event occurred. I can only guess it was poor planning and communication between the Control Tower at ZZZ airport and the military entity operating the UAV.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1170688
Time
Date	201403
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	UAV - Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict