The United States Air Force’s Air Mobility Command (AMC) in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate has begun assessing the AFRL Collaborative Low-Altitude Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Effort’s (CLUE) UTM system at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
Consequently, MacDill became the first Department of the Air Force installation to use UTM capabilities within controlled airspace assigned to Department of Defense air traffic controllers. This is designed to ensure the safe operations of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) alongside manned air operations.
The CLUE programme, initiated in 2016 at AFRL’s Information Directorate in Rome, New York, aims to prepare the Air Force and Department of Defense to use UAS on their installations through Security Forces, airfield management and civil engineering. The CLUE UTM provides air domain awareness, situational awareness and UTM operational capabilities for UAS operators, air traffic control personnel, Security Forces and other stakeholders.
As part of the assessment, at MacDill Air Force Base, UAS operators use CLUE to ask for permission to fly drones. The tower at the base either approves or denies the request. Once approved, the operators can fly their drones within the allowed area. CLUE gives them information about the airspace and the situation through a control interface called SAFIRE-X. This helps them keep track of active drone flights and warns them if the drones go beyond the approved conditions.
AFRL first brought CLUE to the MacDill base in February 2022 to demonstrate its capabilities to personnel involved in UAS operations, particularly air traffic control and security forces. Initial testing focused on evaluating CLUE UTM capabilities for airspace deconfliction, communication and security to enable UAS operations beyond the visual line of sight.
Since then, through collaboration with the 6th Security Forces Squadron, 6th Operations Group, AMC Airfield Operations Division and Air Force Flight Standards Agency, it has been determined that the next phase of assessment should commence. Originally designed to be a Department of Defense/Federal UAS service supplier, CLUE has been developed for two years at MacDill Air Force Base to help air traffic controllers by giving them a three-dimensional view to improve their existing procedures and allow automatic flight permission for UAS operators.
CLUE UTM has now begun formal operational feasibility assessment activities, accessible by the Air Traffic Control Tower, the Base Defense Operations Center and Airfield Management. CLUE UTM is sensor-agnostic and capable of integrating with various sensors and systems developed to detect, track and identify UAS. At the base, this includes the Information Directorate counter-UAS systems, which are also under operational assessment.
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Image: Senior Airman Brooks Dingman, 6th Operations Group air traffic controller, or ATC, uses CLUE to let small UAS operators know where ATC approval is required to fly drones at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. (US Air Force photo by Marc D DeNofio)
