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Exelis, UAS Test Sites to Research Safe Integration into NAS

By Veronica Magan | May 5, 2015
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Exelis’ new application improves UAS situational awareness. Photo: Exelis
[Avionics Today 05-05-2015] Exelis has signed agreements with four Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-designated Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) test sites for airspace situational awareness and research. The research will focus on using the Exelis Symphony RangeVue sense-and-avoid tool toward safe integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS). 
 
“The partnerships with these test sites are win-win arrangements,” said Ed Sayadian, vice president of civil and aerospace systems at Exelis. “The test sites receive air traffic control-quality surveillance data, increasing safety and enabling beyond-line-of-site operations, while Exelis gains critical product feedback, which will be used to shape and validate our service offerings.”
 
The participating test sites are the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range at University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska; the Northern Plains UAS Test Site at University of North Dakota, N.D.; the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance at Griffiss International Airport, N.Y.; and the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Va.
 
Additionally, Exelis is pursuing research and development opportunities with the test sites exploring detect-and-avoid algorithms; non-cooperative target tracking; command and control systems; infrastructure inspection and monitoring; big data analysis for air traffic; and integration of non-FAA surveillance sources. Exelis will leverage capabilities across multiple test sites for a wide range of operational testing and collection of safety data.

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