Canadian UAVs has announced a recent approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the use of the Sparrowhawk Radar as a ground based detect and alert system (GBDAA).
Sparrowhawk is the sole detect and alert system enabling Irving Police Department in Texas to operate their drone as a first responder (DFR) programme throughout the city. The system is installed centrally within the city and provides airspace detection up to 5000 feet at a max range of 12 nautical miles (23km). Within this airspace, police first responders are operating ‘drones-in-a-box’ provided by Unmanned Vehicle Technologies (UVT) of Arkansas. These drone boxes are situated throughout the city and can be activated immediately.
Canadian UAVs says Sparrowhawk is designed to run 24 hours a day, in any weather and enables an unlimited number of drones. “By determining an airspace ‘fingerprint’ over time and monitoring real-time activity, operators can react immediately and become airborne within seconds using the closest drone to the incident,” said John Molberg, VP Innovation. Molberg said Irving’s DFR has decreased police response times by 300 percent within the city.
It is worth noting that Irving is situated in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth, adjacent to the third busiest airport in the world. “With Sparrowhawk Radar tracking exceeding 95 percent, it was deemed by the FAA to provide adequate situational awareness and manned aircraft tracking to allow the police to operate their drones up to 400 feet,” the company said in a press release.
Sparrowhawk is a purpose-built DAA radar which gained initial beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) approval in Canada in October 2020. Testing is ongoing with the Civil Aviation Authority in the United Kingdom as part of the Airspace Strategy Modernisation Fund: Project Dragon’s Eye to achieve similar approvals.
“This year we anticipate to be flying over 50,000 missions BVLOS with Sparrowhawk,” said Molberg.
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