The Textron Systems AerosondeTM UAS Approved to Fly in Civilian Airspace in Europe under Nordic Unmanned Operator Certificate

What is the LUC?

Earlier this year Nordic Unmanned was granted the Light Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Operator Certificate (LUC) by the Norwegian CAA (Luftfartstilsynet). The certificate makes Nordic Unmanned able to self-approve operations according to the company’s operation manual, safety management systems & covers the entire fleet of drones in all EASA countries, an organization which covers most of Europe. The LUC replaces previous regulation where each country had their own rules & regulations that were lacking uniformity. The addition of Textron Systems’ AerosondeTM system to the existing certificate increases the number of drone types that Nordic Unmanned can deploy under self-approved operations.

What does this mean?

Nordic Unmanned has received approval from the Norwegian CAA (Luftfartstilsynet) to include Textron Systems’ Aerosonde system as a part of the LUC approved systems in Nordic Unmanned’s fleet. The system can now be deployed in all the EASA member countries. This means Nordic Unmanned & Textron Systems have reached a major milestone; the Aerosonde system becomes the first ever fixed-wing tactical UAS drone to receive a LUC approval. The approval decreases the time from customer request to service delivery in all EASA countries with Textron Systems’ Aerosonde UAS. This will not only benefit existing contracts but also aid new possibilities for civilian usage.

The System

Textron Systems’ Aerosonde UAS has demonstrated its capability in both expeditionary land- & sea-based operations, providing simultaneous day/night full-motion video, communications relay & a customer-selected payload in a single flight. The Aerosonde system can also be fitted with additional sensors such as signals intelligence, mapping sensors, or synthetic aperture radar. It has logged over 550,000 flight hours making it one of the most reliable platforms on the market.