Feds announce two new drone test sites
Dragon Claws via Getty Images
By
Chris Teale
The sites — the first new ones in over a decade — will be in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week announced two new test sites for drones and unmanned aerial systems, known as UAS, marking the first new sites in over a decade.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the new sites will be in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Indiana Economic Development Corporation. They’re part of the FAA’s UAS Test Site program, which develops, tests and evaluates public and civil unmanned aircraft and related technologies and helps safely integrate drones into the National Airspace System, known as NAS.
The announcement comes on the heels of Duffy in August unveiling a proposed rule for Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operations, which officials said would increase the number of potential use cases for the technology.
“From delivering lifesaving medicine to surveying pipelines, drones are already reshaping industries and changing how people and products interact,” Duffy said in a statement. “It’s our job to make sure the United States safely leads the way with this exciting technology – not China. We’ve added these new test sites to help us gather critical data and test new systems so we can safely unleash innovation in our skies.”
The FAA already has drone test sites with the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration; the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in North Dakota; New Mexico State University; Nevada; New York; the Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi Autonomy Research Institute; and the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership in Virginia.
The test site program launched in 2014, with each site conducting research in areas like aeronautics, biological and geological resource management, search and rescue and public safety in firefighting and law enforcement. Sites also carry out research in areas like detection and avoidance, command and control, airworthiness, air traffic control, counter-UAS and environmental impacts, among others.
Momentum behind drone research and development accelerated last year, after President Donald Trump issued his “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” executive order in a bid to enhance productivity, create jobs and shape the future of aviation. Since then, a law passed to expand state and local law enforcement’s counter-drone authority, the Federal Emergency Management Agency distributed grant funding to bolster counter-drone operations during major events and the Department of Homeland Security launched an office for drone and counter-drone technologies.
Significantly, these two new sites include the first one to be located on tribal land. Administration officials said that will ensure those areas don’t “get left behind.”
“These new technologies can save lives on reservations with useful practices including the transportation of medical supplies to far reaching corners of these tribal lands,” USDOT’s Assistant Secretary of Tribal Government Affairs James Crawford said in a statement.
The local impacts from the test sites have been tremendous already. The Northern Plains site, housed at the Grand Forks Air Force Base, has helped survey storm damage in North Dakota and provided disaster response. Officials are now exploring delivery of food, medical supplies and other goods to rural and remote areas, while the site has sparked private sector investment at the 217-acre Grand Sky business park.
Hunter Hegel, Unmanned Aerial Systems operations lead at Northern Plains, said in an interview last year that the “aviation spirit has spread throughout the whole state, making it one of the UAS hubs in the U.S.”
The 2024 law reauthorizing the FAA required the agency to designate two new sites. Bedford said the effort is crucial for the future of aviation.
“These test sites help the U.S. assess emerging technologies to modernize methods for cargo delivery, Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations and multiple drone operations while informing safety and security,” he said in a statement. “Together, we will usher in the safe commercialization of drone technologies and fully integrate UAS into our NAS.”