Air traffic management company Thales has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) technology provider AstraUTM to explore areas of collaboration in the domains of UTM services and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
The MoU was signed on October 10th, 2022 between Christian Riviere, VP of Airspace Mobility Solutions at Thales and Asam Khan, CEO of AstraUTM, in the presence of senior executives from both companies at Thales’ headquarters in Paris, France.
The strategic partnership will combine Thales and Astra expertise and experience in UTM through worldwide deployments to offer a premium UTM solution designed to enhance aviation security and safety for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). As part of the agreement, Thales and AstraUTM will work collaboratively in pursuit of UTM business opportunities in providing UTM capabilities and solutions, delivering drone and pilot registration, flight planning, in-flight monitoring, situational awareness and deconfliction. Furthermore, the partnership, based on Thales’ experience of ATM systems worldwide will lead in some cases to the development and implementation of systems catered to Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO’s) to ensure future ATM/UTM integration.
A joint press release said with drone ownership and the demand for drone services growing at a rapid rate, Thales and AstraUTM are committed to supporting the aviation industry as it evolves to safely incorporate multiple drone operations, both within and beyond visual line of sight, into controlled airspace.
Christian Riviere, VP of Airspace Mobility Solutions, Thales said: “Building on its global leadership in ATM, Thales has successfully developed and deployed UTM solutions in the US and France. With such a partnership, we intend to combine AstraUTM fast, agile and comprehensive UTM offer to accelerate UAS operations deployments with a specific focus in Middle East and Europe.”
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