The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking for two additional test sites for its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Test Site (UASTS) programme.
The objective of the FAA UASTS programme is to enable a broad variety of development, testing and evaluation activities related to public and civil UAS and associated technologies; and to the extent consistent with aviation safety and efficiency, support the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.
The FAA initially designated six UAS test sites, which became operational in 2014 and began to conduct test flights. In 2016, a seventh test site was added, as mandated by the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 recently updated the UASTS program and established that the “Administrator may select and designate as a test range under this section up to 2 additional test ranges . . . through a competitive selection process”.
Moreover, in a June 6, 2025 Executive Order (Unleashing American Drone Dominance), the President directed the Secretary of Transportation, acting through the Administrator of the FAA, to “ensure all FAA UAS test ranges are fully utilised to support the development, testing and scaling of American drone technologies, with a focus on BVLOS [beyond visual line of sight] operations, increasingly autonomous operations, advanced air mobility and other advanced operations.” A further Executive Order (Restoring American Airspace Sovereignty), issued on the same date, stated: “It is the policy of the United States to ensure control over our national airspace and to protect the public, critical infrastructure, mass gathering events, and military and sensitive government installations and operations from threats posed by the careless or unlawful use of UAS.” The FAA says it may utilise the UASTS programme to support research, development, testing and evaluation of technologies and systems that enable the detection, tracking and identification of UAS and UAS signals, in support of the mandates in the Executive Order.
In order to select and designate up to two additional test sites for expansion to the existing UASTS programme, the FAA is seeking partners who can meet requirements and who have demonstrated expertise and future plans in the focus areas outlined in the Executive Order mandates. Selected Test Sites will be expected to demonstrate advances in technological capabilities as well as operational concepts and comply with the resulting Other Transaction Agreement (OTA), a draft version of which is included as an attachment for review with FAA’s solicitation notice.
The FAA intends to conduct this competitive selection process through a phased proposal submission and phased evaluation process, with the potential to authorise and designate up to two new UAS Test Sites.
Proposals must be submitted electronically and are due no later than 3:00 pm ET on December 1, 2025.
For more information
Image: Federal Aviation Administration
