The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published Version 2 of its Detect and Avoid (DAA) Policy Concept, CAP3015, providing greater clarity on how operators and developers can demonstrate that DAA capabilities are suitable for proposed beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.
The updated policy sets out clearer expectations for testing, evidence and regulatory review, alongside further detail on pilot interaction, automation and alerting. It also introduces an initial policy position on encounters between uncrewed aircraft.
The CAA says applicants may be able to use relevant previous testing or recognised standards to support their applications, while testing approaches can be tailored where objective evidence demonstrates that they are sufficient for the proposed operation.
CAP3015 remains a live policy concept within a controlled test phase, rather than a blanket approval route for unrestricted BVLOS operations. Applications remain subject to operation-specific assessment, specialist scrutiny and enhanced oversight.
The document also confirms that, under UK Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA), residual ARC-a operations do not require DAA-based tactical air-risk mitigation. The CAA has effectively revoked planned changes to the Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) and Guidance Material (GM) for UK SORA that were due to enter into force on 1 October 2026.
Under ORS9 Decision No. 61, published on 17 September, the CAA withdrew ORS9 Decision No. 60, which introduced the changes in July. As a result, the versions of the AMC and GM in force immediately before 3 July 2026 will continue to apply.
The CAA said the decision follows further industry feedback on the changes and ongoing work on wider improvements to UK SORA. It intends to combine the paused changes with further updates into a single AMC and GM release next year.
The decision does not affect existing Specific Category authorisations or operators with live applications in the UK SORA Application Service. It is relevant to operators preparing UK SORA applications based on the AMC and GM changes that were due to take effect in October.
For more information
https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-publications/publications/documents/content/ors9-no-0061/
(Image: Unsplash)
For more information
https://www.caa.co.uk/data-and-publications/publications/documents/content/cap3015/#
(Image: Unsplash)