By Philip Butterworth-Hayes
Today should be an historic day for Europe’s U-space community. Today the first U-space area is due to become operational, in Italy. So why isn’t the bunting out? Why aren’t the great and good of Europe’s drone industry and their aviation regulatory colleagues celebrating with hugs to the crash of champagne corks?
Because this is not the great moment where the regulatory dam has burst and the European drone industry can now scale to its real potential.
Today there will be no autonomous BVLOS drone flights sharing the same airspace in San Salvo, Abruzzo, supported by an integrated U-space architecture with independent U-space service providers competing for business.
It is, instead, another example of aviation regulators and member states failing to grasp the challenge of digitising airspace management and raises some serious questions about whether the current regulatory framework is the right one for managing aircraft in the digital age.
There are three reasons for this.
First, UTM and U-space is far more complex in terms of technology, regulations, legalities (including determining the exact legal obligations of all stakeholders) and institutional issues than at first thought. The European Union U-space regulation came into force in January 2023 but there are still no EU-certified U-space service providers available to manage complex drone operations in Europe. There are simply not enough resources in terms of time, expertise and money among national and EU regulators to certify U-space services to meet the demand of the market.
Second, regulators have not taken enough account of the business case for providing UTM/U-space services, which at the moment is minimal.
And third, at the heart of the current U-space architectural models is a contradiction which is becoming increasingly clear: you cannot, no matter how hard you try, retain the same central government/ANSP control over a digitally-based ATM system relying on the free flow of digital information between certified stakeholders that you can with an analogue architecture. Especially if you want to add AI, machine learning and agile SME activities into the mix – which is one of the core reasons for going digital in the first place. Digital means loosening control.
Europe has been struggling to evolve its ageing, obsolescent, silo-based ATM architectures into the digital age, with neither equipment producers nor ANSPs (with the exception of brave Skyguide) prepared to make the leap into the digital age. For it is a leap. “You shouldn’t start from here” is the first advice that European ANSP COOs are given when they first contemplate how to develop location-independent digital ATM operations, replacing their radars with independent surveillance services, as outlined in the European ATM Masterplan. But the beauty of U-space is that it does allow them to start with a clean digital sheet, providing exactly the kind of digital ATM architecture blueprint which can provide the foundation of the future ATM system.
So what should happen now? It is very easy to be critical of progress but this means nothing if there is no suggestion of an alternative. Within the current European Union aviation framework progress will continue to be snail-like without governments prepared to invest heavily in new ATM architecture, which seems highly unlikely.
In other parts of the world – China and the Middle East – autonomous aviation systems are moving at breakneck speeds which worry many in the West but may well be more attuned to the digital age. There, regulators are taking a far more radical approach to integrating traffic management systems with drone and eVTOL operational communications and this may not create the safety challenges many in Europe fear. Time will tell.
Yet, it is a day that should be, if not celebrated, then acknowledged. This is not a dam burst, but a small chip in the exterior lining. And in Europe, that is still something.
(Image: Shutterstock)
