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Watchkeeper 450
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“Will UAV Proliferation Create Unfriendly Skies for Other Aircraft?” addressed the critical issue of ‘deconfliction,’ as well as ‘swarming’ algorithms currently under development. Meanwhile, flying restrictions aimed at avoiding aerial collisions have put a serious crimp in the tactical usefulness of UAVs at the battalion level and below, as detailed in “Field Report on Raven, Shadow UAVs From the 101st.”

Deconfliction issues have also prevented civil UAV markets from reaching anything close to their full potential for border patrol, land surveying, et. al. Management is not impossible – for instance, the Hermes 450, which is the basis of Britain’s Watchkeeper Mk450 system, is now civil certified in Israel. Which is why a May 2007 EUR 500,000 (then about $672,000) European Defence Agency initiative could be significant…

• The EDA’s Goals
• Air for All
• Contracts and Events

The EDA’s Goals

From the EDA:

“The main target of the joint agenda is to address the challenge of enabling UAVs to operate alongside conventional air traffic. This is the key to expanding the use of UAVs beyond the purely military into the security and ultimately commercial domains and to creating the scale of demand around which European industry can unite. Starting with an EDA-funded roadmap study, the proposed approach aims at progression from the current state of affairs, in which military UAVs can fly in segregated airspace, to a situation in which civilian and government-operated UAVs could operate alongside other manned aircraft in integrated airspace by 2012. This will require innovative technology development and system demonstrations for UAVs to be considered fully airworthy and for the right regulatory framework to be in place for this integration…. It has the potential… to move Europe quickly to a leadership position in a field which is of prime importance for European armed forces and the European aerospace industry alike.”

This initiative may well turn out to require more funding than currently allocated. If it succeeds, however, it could live up to the EDA’s boast.

Air For All

The result of this effort has been the creation of the Air4All consortium, which aims to develop a common strategy for the seamless integration of unmanned systems within General Air Traffic.

In late 2007-early 2008, the consortium received an order for a detailed action plan for how Unmanned Vehicles (UAVs) are to be able to fly in civil airspace by 2015 at the latest. The plan has 9 modules, and the initial work of the consortium is focused around the production of this routemap by July 2008. The roadmap will include an implementation plan that includes both technological and regulatory elements, and cost estimates for reaching the 2015 objective.

The participants expect that this will lead to a set of coherent projects addressing the commercial as well as the security and defence uses of UAS. The Air4All consortium comprises:

• Alenia Aeronautica (Italy)
• BAE Systems (UK, Sweden)
• Dassault Aviation (France)
• Diehl BGT Defence (Germany)
• EADS CASA (Spain)
• EADS Defence & Security Germany
• Selex Galileo (Italy)
• QinetiQ (UK)
• Rheinmetall Defence Electronics (Germany)
• SAAB AB (Sweden)
• Sagem Defence Systems (France)
• Thales Aerospace (France, UK)

Contracts and Events

Feb 19/08: Saab announces its portion of the Air4All award. The project consists of 9 work packages in total; Saab is participating in 5, and is responsible for the work package that covers the analysis of the present situation to develop a common European regulation for UAVs in civil airspace.

Jan 8/08: A contract worth EUR 500,000 is awarded to the Air4All consortium. EDA release.

Dec 20/07: The EDA announces the outcome of its “Study On Sense & Avoid Technologies For Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles [LE-UAVs]”. The complete report has been made available to the designated representatives of the EDA participating Member States. The EDA adds that:

“Sense & Avoid technologies were already key issues for the operation and training of LE UAVs when decision was made on launching the Study, and its importance has significantly grown in view of recent new initiatives. To achieve the insertion of UAVs into general air traffic it was unavoidable to assess the feasibility of S&A systems allowing LE UAVs to avoid mid-air collisions with other airspace users, taking into account technological, regulatory and certification aspects.”

The study was launched in March 2006, and after 16.5 months the project was completed in August 2007; results of the Study were presented to the participating Member States at the Final Presentation on November 13/07 2007. EDA announcement | EDA project overview [PDF]

May 14/07: The EDA issues a background release re: its new initiative.

Additional Readings & Sources

• EDA (Dec 20/07) – Summary on Sense Avoid Technologies for LE UAVs [PDF]

• EDA (May 14/07) – Background on New EDA Initiative on UAVs