Huntsville International Airport has been selected as one of four in the country to participate in a new Federal Aviation Administration study to evaluate unmanned aircraft systems detection and mitigation systems.
Huntsville applied for the role last September and was notified this week that it has been selected.
“Given Redstone Arsenal’s capabilities related to UAS and the capabilities available in this community to address detection and mitigation of UAS, both militarily as well as commercially in the civilian world, the team believed Huntsville International Airport to be an ideal candidate for this selection,” airport officials said in a news release.
“Huntsville International Airport is honored to have been selected by the FAA as one of four airports across the U.S. where they will establish UAS Detection and Mitigation Research Program Test Sites,” said Rick Tucker, Huntsville International Airport CEO.
“We are grateful to our partner UAH, to industry partners like COLSA, QuantiTech and Dynetics and to city, county and state leadership for their support and vital roles in this endeavor,” Tucker added. “We especially want to express our appreciation to Senator Richard Shelby for his efforts regarding HSV’s selection and for his continued support of Huntsville International Airport as we both work to move Alabama forward.”
Reiterating UAH support for the project, UAH President Dr. Darren Dawson said, “UAH will leverage its creative and innovative spirit to advance research in UAS operational and threat applications for the FAA as a committed research partner.”
“Jerry Hendrix in UAH’s Rotorcraft Systems Engineering and Simulation Center has been working with Huntsville International Airport on this effort for over two years”, said Dr. Bob Lindquist, UAH Vice President for Research and Economic Development. “This project will allow UAH to leverage its Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) expertise and engage with the FAA and aviation organizations with superior UAS engineering, research, integration and test capability from all across the United States. UAH is becoming a national leader in UAS research with our UAS work with ASSURE, NASA, DHS and DOD research and our ever-expanding technology exploration in this area.”
