Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) in Australia has selected the organisations it will partner with to trial and evaluate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS).
In 2025, FRV’s aviation team will work with the following organisations to deploy selected RPAS capability to a simulated emergency incident to gain a deeper understanding of the regulatory environment that enables the utilisation of BVLOS RPAS and the capabilities that are currently available within the sector:
- Toll Uncrewed Systems
- Silvertone UAV
- Wedgetail Aerospace
- Ninox Robotics
- Carbonix
- BurnBot
- Yamaha Motor Australia Pty Ltd
- Quantum Systems
- UASCI
FRV said in a statement that it was encouraged by the volume of responses from industry to the expressions of interest (EOI) process.
“It is clear that the RPAS ecosystem in Australia is strong and we are optimistic about the potential that RPAS can offer into the future across the emergency management sector. We look forward to partnering with industry and continuing our engagement with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) on the delivery of this trial throughout 2025.”
Results from the trial will be used to guide the development and implementation of practices and procedures to underpin and facilitate safe and effective use of BVLOS operations to support the management of actual fire, rescue and emergency events; and inform future decisions regarding the selection and utilisation of RPAS capabilities to support the management of actual fire, rescue and emergency events in the future.
The project is supported by the Victorian Government.
For more information
Image: Fire Rescue Victoria
