A wide range of efforts are being made throughout Europe to enable the commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems. On the one hand, to promote an important future technology with enormous economic potential. On the other hand, to make Europe more independent from other regions of the world and to establish technological sovereignty. UAV DACH and its members are therefore working intensively at European and national level to create the foundations for a strong UAS industry between Tallinn and Lisbon and from Brussels to Prague.
At the heart of these efforts is the demand that economically viable and safe UAS operations be made possible from a regulatory perspective and - if necessary - approved more quickly and easily. One step in this direction is the rapid establishment of a fully integrated and digitized airspace in which all airspace participants are technically visible.
In addition, the current geopolitical crises and conflicts show in many ways how important strategic independence in key technologies is. Accordingly, it is important to support the European UAS/AAM industry in creating modern, largely automated production facilities. With regard to European defense capabilities, this explicitly includes the sustainable establishment of capacities for the development and production of dual-use drones and UAS for military applications.
This requires, among other things, the creation of a well-funded research landscape in which industry and application-oriented technologies with a clear focus on economic efficiency, regular operation and international competitiveness are promoted.
In addition, a practicable regulatory framework is required in order to be able to use drones in the service of internal security and for the effective protection of critical infrastructure. This also means that the detection and, if necessary, defence of uncooperative drones should be made possible for the relevant authorities and suitable and appropriately controlled private sector organizations. Last but not least, the commercial use of drones in agriculture and forestry as well as in the interests of environmental and climate protection must be enabled and promoted across the board.
We recently submitted demands such as these to the parties negotiating the formation of a new federal government in Berlin. However, we are also making demands like these to the responsible bodies at European level and decision-makers from all over Europe.