Fortem Technologies and Unifly have announced they will collaborate to develop a joint airspace safety and security solution for drone operations. According to a company press release: “This new end-to-end solution will allow UTM and U-space architectures to be used by public safety officers, military groups and other government agencies to secure airspace around critical infrastructure, airports, stadiums, public venues and more.”
“Recent security breaches have caused the demand for digitized airspace above a venue or across a city to skyrocket, particularly for solutions that can detect drones with no RF emissions,” said Fortem Technologies CEO Timothy Bean. “Fortem SkyDome supports drone service providers like Unifly to pave the way for safe and secure drone operations in an urban environment.”
Unifly recently announced Unifly BLIP (Broadcast Location and Identity Platform), an e-Identification sensor that detects position, altitude, temperature, pressure, speed and direction, when placed directly on a drone. This information can be accessed in real-time by relevant authorities, such as police officers or government organizations, through secured applications. Fortem SkyDome is an AI data platform that uses distributed Fortem TrueView radar to digitize the airspace above and around infrastructure, venues, events and cities, for approved drones to fly safely and unapproved drones to be identified quickly. The new joint solution will combine and leverage the capabilities offered by these solutions.
“Safety and situational awareness are the two key elements that come into play for organizations working to develop and deploy new drone technology,” said Laurent Huenaerts, General Manager of Unifly. “Combining Unifly’s solutions with Fortem’s is a milestone that will allow us to serve the needs of more stakeholders and accelerate towards the safe drone-enabled airspace we envision.”
Fortem and Unifly were both chosen to participate in the UAS Integration Pilot Program, which sets out to accelerate the safe integration of UAS into the airspace. Fortem is also running tests with various Departments of Transportation (DOT) at the state level, and SkyDome is being tested by the Utah Department of Transportation at Salt Lake City Airport, as well as with additional domestic and international airports. Unifly and Fortem have also both partnered with the State of Nevada UAS Test Site for the FAA UTM Pilot Program, a joint initiative from the FAA and NASA that seeks to manage the airspace for the safe deployment of drones in the US National Airspace System (NAS).
“We are one step closer to the realization of a world where every bit of land is an airport and every business and home is its own airline,” says Bean.
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