Thales has been awarded a contract by Finland’s VTT research institution to provide its uncrewed traffic management (UTM) system, TopSky – AstraUTM, as part of a programme to enable safe and efficient air mobility operations across Finland.
In late 2024 VTT awarded two UTM contracts, one to ANRA and a second to Thales.
The Thales contract will include services such as uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) flight authorisation, geo-awareness and network identification, and traffic information services, to deliver secure drone operations in compliance with EU Regulation 2021/664.
The U-Space Finland Precommercial Pilot Implementation project, part of VTT’s Drolo 2 Project, aims to develop and deploy automated, secure, scalable drone systems, products and services. This is intended to support a wide range of drone applications, including logistics, agriculture, forestry, airport and construction operations. Additionally, the project seeks to establish a strong Finnish Drolo innovation and business ecosystem. The aim is that U-Space services, within European regulations, can be launched, tested and piloted in Finland making it the first or one of the first countries to do so.
“The Living Lab test environment based in the Oulu region of Finland, as part of the Drolo project, is ideal in many ways, as it combines piloting with various service needs and flight environments, such as a medium-sized international airport, seaport, inhabited island, medium-sized city centre and a 5G development centre,” Thales said.
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Image: Thales
