U.K. Launches UAS Testing Center

U.K. Launches UAS Testing Center

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A private initiative to supply a test, evaluation, demonstration and experimentation facility for beyond-line-of-sight (BLoS) unmanned air systems (UAS) operations in the U.K. took an important step forward with the formal launch of the National Aeronautical Centre.

West Wales UAV Center. Photo: WWUAVC
West Wales UAV Center. Photo: WWUAVC

According to Aviation Week the center pools unique resources — two large tracts of segregated airspace, totaling more than 5,000 sq. mi. (~13,000 sq. km) over land and sea, where unmanned aircraft can be flown at altitudes between 5,000 and 66,000 ft. (1,524-20,117 meters) without every sortie requiring a time – consuming portfolio of mission – specific authorizations.

Ray Mann, NAC’s managing director, believes the facility gives the U.K. a strategic national advantage in the race to win a significant slice of the international UAS market, estimated currently at around $4.7 billion. He predicts that, partly as a result of the Center’s existence, commercial flights of BLoS UAS in non-segregated airspace could take place in Britain within five years.

The center combines the established range created around the West Wales Airport, which has hosted UAS flights since 2001, with three new blocks of segregated airspace. The West Wales airfield is inside restricted airspace so flights can take off and land as test schedules require.

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The decision for West Wales and Newquay to join forces was made at last year’s Farnborough air show. “We met at Farnborough and fell in love,” as Mann jocularly says. There are no plans to apply for another airspace block to join the two tracts of space together, though permissions can be obtained for remotely piloted aircraft to transit between the two restricted areas, opening up the possibility of flying UAS from one airfield and landing them at the other.

The Hermes-450 UAV. Photo: Elbit.
The Hermes-450 UAV. Photo: Elbit.

West Wales has provided a base of operations for flights of the Thales-led Watchkeeper program (based on the Elbit systems Hermes-450)— the British Army’s tactical UAS — presently awaiting its release-to-service from the Military Aviation Authority. Trials with a Watchkeeper UAS flying in uncontrolled airspace will begin in next summer.

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