Polish air navigation services provider, PANSA, announced it has signed the contract for the Podkarpackie Competence Centre, which will become a comprehensive environment for testing, demonstrating, certifying and implementing advanced drone services including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and long-range logistics.
PANSA said the enter will be “the most convincing proof that Poland can build a full-scale, regional ecosystem for new, unmanned mobility using funds from the National Recovery Plan, which will be invested directly in the Podkarpacie region”.
The initiative aims to design and implement a number of scenarios, such as:
- flights over urban and suburban areas,
- flights over linear infrastructure,
- flights over forested and sparsely populated areas,
- operations in hilly and mountainous conditions, and
- flights requiring different communication, navigation and monitoring profiles
PANSA will now oversee the commencement of analytical and field work. This will include carrying out a series of uncrewed flights to identify and map terrain obstacles and provide detailed imaging of the operational area. Aviation data will be combined with information on population density and spatial conditions, necessary for designing safe BVLOS operations.
Facilities for training, testing and validation will be constructed and PANSA will prepare for operational launch by conducting organisational and technical activities enabling the commencement of full operational activities from September 2026, including the launch of new software to increase flight safety.
The ecosystem will be open to partners from the moment of operational launch.
The agreement establishing the centre was signed by Mr. Konrad Fijołek, Mayor of Rzeszów; Ms. Małgorzata Jarosińska-Jedynak, Member of the Board of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; Ms. Magdalena Jaworska-Maćkowiak, President of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency; Mr. Piotr Koszelnik, Rector of the Rzeszów University of Technology; Mr. Władysław Ortyl, Marshal of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship and Ms. Miranda Trojanowska, Deputy Mayor of Krosno.
The Podkarpacie Competence Centre is the only project of its kind being established in Poland, integrating local government initiatives into a single entity. As part of the National Recovery Plan, nine additional competence centres will be established across the country, serving as the digital backbone of the national drone ecosystem. These will be the Stalowowolskie Competence Centre, the Przasnysz Economic Zone, the Olsztyn-Barczewo Competence Centre, the Turośń Kościelna Competence Centre, the Kąkolewo Competence Centre, the Strzelce Krajeńskie Competence Centre, the Lower Silesian Air Zone Competence Centre, the Upper Odra Competence Centre and the Bytom-Zabrze Competence Centre. Five training centres will be established within the aforementioned centres.
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