AX Supports Air Force Tests of New Drone Airspace Management System (Air & Space Forces Magazine)
(AX Enterprize has been the prime contractor on the Collaborative Low-Altitude UAS Integration Effort (CLUE), a product of the AFRL’s Information Directorate and AFWERX, since its inception. AX proudly continues to support CLUE, which was the subject of a recent article in Air and Space Forces Magazine about the challenges of flying drones in increasingly complex airspace, excerpted below:)
Deconflicting airspace was rarely a problem in the early days of Predator drones, but today the number and types of drones is rapidly expanding, with some that can be carried in backpacks and others that lift off vertically. That makes managing airspace a challenge.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville complained about the “industrial age” system for deconflicting crewed aircraft, drones, and surface-to-surface rockets during an exercise last winter. Air Force officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine soon after that the Army and Air Force were working to develop a better approach in the future.
Now the Air Force has a CLUE about what that future looks like: the Collaborative Low-Altitude UAS Integration Effort, a product of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate and AFWERX, AFRL’s innovation directorate. The new UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system was installed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
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