The Finnish Defence and Aviation Industry Association (PIA) has today (February 10) published its National Drone Strategy [in Finnish], which intends to make Finland the leading country for drone development and operations within five years.
The strategy has been created by key players in the Finnish drone industry and defines the guidelines for the near future of Finnish drone operations. The project was initiated by MP Jarno Limnéll. “Finland has a huge amount of drone-related expertise and the drone industry is a very strong growing sector globally. It creates an excellent opportunity to create economic growth in Finland,” says MP Limnéll.
The strategy notes that Finnish drone companies are expected to be global leaders by 2030, making Finland an attractive destination for drone-related investments, stating, “the advantage of a small country is the ability to act flexibly and holistically”. Finland also offers unique environmental conditions for testing drones, including challenging arctic weather, dense forests and coasts and lake areas.
The strategy describes the development needs and principles of the five areas necessary to achieve this goal:
- Cultivating critical competence
- Promotion of drone development and testing
- Improving the conditions for testing, experimentation and evaluation
- Securing national security of supply
- Facilitating commissioning, operation and maintenance (including accelerated permit procedures)
The document also highlights national economic benefits, noting that the forecast range given by various market reports for the size of the global drone market by 2030 is in the range of 50–250 billion euros, with growth continuing at an “exceptionally rapid” pace.
“Through regulation and infrastructure investments, the task is to enable the emergence of innovations, low-threshold experimentation and rapid introduction,” the strategy states. “This requires legislation, official regulations, operating methods and uniform development in all administrative sectors.”
Finland’s use of drones requires reliance on safe and reliable mobile communication networks. “Different drones based on 4G and 5G technologies have been successfully tested around the world, but regulatory challenges are slowing down large-scale deployment,” the strategy says. “Technological developments, especially the capacity to transfer large amounts of data and the integration of drones into existing communication infrastructures, offer great economic opportunities. Innovative business models, such as drones as a service, cannot fully develop without a clear regulatory framework, which limits economic potential.”
The strategy says that overcoming organisational cultural barriers is slow and sometimes impossible. “This is why new operating and financing models are necessary, that circumvent the obstacles of traditional structures and open space for innovation. A low threshold should be allowed in Finland’s operating model for developing new concepts and for their experimentation in an operating environment relevant to drones. Paid trial and experimentation environments should be easily accessible – they should be freely available and available for various experiments with as little permit bureaucracy as possible.”
In addition, the strategy’s authors say Finland’s business environment should encourage the innovative activities of companies with the help of tax incentives, for example. “Innovation partnership models that have been planned for a long time must be implemented. So far, implementation has been more modest than expected.”
The strategy calls for nationally-owned and controlled test areas and laboratories, which together with regulation, “enable the performance of subsystems, systems and entities operating in the radio spectrum assessment and verification”. These spaces could be used to test the functionality of drones in various interference-sensitive environments and develop their critical capabilities.
“The goal is to create a test infrastructure that serves both domestic and international actors and strengthens Finland’s position as a country for the development and testing of high-quality drone technology.”
The document says that a critical review and streamlining of the current regulations are required so that safety and type approval procedures enable the rapid introduction of drones without unnecessarily complicated permit processes. Regulation must also be consistent at the EU level, so that Finland does not create a fringe market with its own special requirements.
“The use of drones must be safe and strictly regulated by both authorities and commercial operators needs. This requires clear rules for freedom of action in all environments – on land, at sea and in the air.”
To implement the goals set out in the strategy, a five-year national drone programme will be established, to include training, national product development, testing and legislative action. Investment in research and test areas will also be crucial and the strategy points to the need for a large-scale national laboratory as well as a GPS interference test area.
For more information
Finnish Defence and Aviation Industry Association
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