With uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) dominating the news cycle lately, technology leaders should become aware of the evolving capabilities of UAS. Contemporary UAS offer longer endurance than previous systems, with some models capable of 24 hour flight, enabling them to cover vast areas.
During my military career, I spent five years overseeing UAS intelligence collection and managing the network architecture to deliver sensor data to IT hubs. That experience allowed me to see the potential these long-endurance capabilities could provide commercial enterprises.
As such, the global drone market is set to reach $54.6 billion by 2030.
Furthermore, as artificial intelligence and machine learning mature, UAS utility for the commercial sector will increase. With more capable sensor payloads, businesses can leverage these capabilities to gain operational efficiencies.
Federal Communications Commission C-Band Spectrum Ruling and its Implications
In 2024, FCC commissioners voted to expand the C-band portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (5 GHz range) to commercial UAS operators. This frequency range enables reliable, long-range (up to 100 miles) command and control of UAS in controlled airspace.
Specifically, the ruling allows for increased communication bandwidth and data transmission capabilities, allowing long-endurance commercial UAS to conduct over-the-horizon flights like military UAS are capable of.
Providing access to the C-band spectrum also addresses current hurdles with commercial UAS operations today, including data congestion and atmospheric attenuation problems. The C-band spectrum will enable reliable, high-speed data transfer, essential to minimize latency between UAS and ground control stations.
Overall, the C-band will enable current UAS business applications to operate more efficiently.
Some current applications include the following:
Infrastructure Inspections: Drones streamline the inspection process for utilities, pipelines, and transportation networks, reducing downtime and costs while enhancing safety.
Agriculture: UAS equipped with high-resolution sensors monitor crop health, optimize irrigation, and manage resources effectively, leading to increased yields and reduced waste.
Logistics and Delivery: Long-endurance drones facilitate efficient delivery systems, particularly in remote or underserved areas, enhancing supply chain capabilities and customer satisfaction.
Emergency Services: Drones offer enhanced situational awareness during emergencies, enabling rapid response and assessment.
Expanding Business Opportunities
The capabilities of long-endurance uncrewed aircraft systems, coupled with the recent FCC ruling, are far-reaching. Businesses now have a unique opportunity to integrate UAS technology into business operations enabling innovation and improving efficiency.
Here are several emerging sectors ripe for UAS adoption:
Real Estate and Construction: Drones can reinvent property marketing and construction management through aerial imaging.
Environmental Monitoring: Companies can monitor wildlife, forest health, and climate change impacts, providing valuable data for conservation efforts and compliance with environmental regulations.
Telecommunications: UAS can play a vital role in assessing infrastructure and aiding in deploying communication networks, particularly in remote areas or after natural disasters.
Healthcare: UAS delivery of medical supplies, vaccines, and telemedicine services could expand healthcare access to underserved populations and improve health outcomes.
Legacy Systems Integration
Managing full-motion video (FMV) and image data from UAS commercial operations is a complex challenge involving storage, transmission, security, and analytics. High-resolution images and FMV can rapidly consume terabytes of storage, requiring a well-planned data storage policy.
Furthermore, transferring large images and FMV datasets from a UAS to a central IT hub is bandwidth-intensive and requires innovative edge computing solutions to enable near-real-time analysis.
Technical teams will need training on transmitting data between the UAS and ground control stations to ensure secure and reliable communications. Key challenges include gaining knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond-line-of-sight communication protocols, such as message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT). In addition, knowledge of AI-driven compression algorithms will be needed for bandwidth efficiency.
These skills are necessary to facilitate the successful processing of UAS data.
Technology leaders must strategically address how UAS will integrate with legacy information technology systems. Legacy system infrastructure may not be designed to accommodate UAS data streams such as the MOSAIC datasets or Massive, Overlapping, Surveillance, and Computationally Intensive data. This data type is rich in high-resolution imagery and FMV, leading to increased storage costs and infrastructure scalability concerns.
At a minimum, technology leaders should focus on:
- Data Compatibility: Legacy IT systems must be evaluated and potentially upgraded to handle the rich data that UAS generates.
- System Interoperability: A lack of standard metadata formats can lead to inefficiencies in data fusion and interpretation, which can impact real monitoring.
- Security Considerations: As UAS operates in diverse environments and collects sensitive information, integration into legacy systems must also address cybersecurity risks.
The Wrap
The FCC’s ruling on the C-band creates significant opportunities for businesses. By strategically leveraging the capabilities of long-endurance UAS, companies can expand operational capabilities and gain a competitive edge.
The onus of processing and protecting UAS data will fall to technology leaders.
As such, this new era of aviation innovation will require technology leaders to remain informed, adaptable, and proactive to bring transformative capabilities to their industries. Leaders will also need to invest in training for their personnel to gain the technical knowledge to handle UAS data proficiently.
