How to fly a UAV in another country from the comfort of your own home

Over the last decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gone from a curiosity we took a sideways glance at to becoming a mainstream device that militaries and navies are now building into their concept of operations globally. Although being led by the defence sector, the civil UAV market is catching on, with the market for production and services applications forecasted to grow at around 11% per annum over the next five to six years, largely driven by the infrastructure sector. [1].

Today, the market consists of both fixed wing and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) – otherwise known as helicopter UAVs – fulfilling missions across the globe. However, in recent years it is the VTOL UAV segment that has particularly come to the fore and is what I am concentrating on here. VTOL UAVs have increased in popularity largely thanks to the maritime sector, due to their ability to fly on heavy fuels and small logistical profile. With an endurance of more than five hours for platforms like the Skeldar V-200, and ease of maintenance, it is easy to start seeing the benefits. Add on to these improvements in robustness and an ability to integrate multiple sensors, and the VTOL UAV is becoming a must have for applications including reconnaissance, identification, target acquisition and electronic warfare.

What is ahead? One of the latest innovations I have written about is the ability to control a VTOL UAV from a completely different location to the platform itself; let’s rephrase that – it is now possible to fly a UAV in the USA (or any other country for that matter) from a Ground Control Station in your kitchen in the UK. Thanks to the deployment of 5G technologies, this is now a reality.

Let us take a moment to actually think about this. As a company, we provide PR communications and strategy consulting focussed on delivering communications and messaging for technology clients operating in disruptive sectors. What I am saying is that disruptive technologies are what we communicate about. This definitely falls into this category.

To take this one step further, how do you enable someone to trust the technology enough to actually fly a UAV from one country in another? It takes a lot just to imagine it happening.

The answer not only lies in the ability of the technology to deliver on its promise, but also the communications around it. This is where we come in. Being able to prove the technology works through case studies; being able to visualise it in action; being able to talk about the innovation authentically all helps the potential end user to believe in the art of the possible. After all, without the ‘air cover’ communications activities provide, how will an end user understand enough to trust in its capabilities?

Clearly this is just one innovation of many for the UAV sector. However, the point I’m making is that technologies are evolving all of the time at a speed so rapid it is often hard to keep up. This is why communications will always be a key enabler to bringing innovations to life.

[1] https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Point-of-View/Cargo-drones-The-future-of-parcel-delivery.html