The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch has selected a site in Mississippi for the flight testing of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) in support of its research and development efforts.
Mississippi State University (MSU) in Starkville will lead the R&D project, which was competitively awarded, the school said on Wednesday.
The demonstration range includes about 2,000 square miles of restricted airspace at altitudes up to 60,000-feeet, mainly in southern and coastal Mississippi. The range makes use of various sites including Camp Shelby, which is used by the Army for training and for joint forces training, buffer zones at NASA’s Stennis Space Center, and Singing River Island.
S&T has been using other sites in the U.S. for testing sUAS. An agency spokesman said that contracts are still being worked out for the new site.
Mississippi State said that the DHS S&T Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Demonstration Range Facility “will support homeland security operations and training by providing UAS flight and exercise support facilities that will support operational evaluation of UAS in a variety of applications and scenarios.”
The award follows the selection of MSU two years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration to operate a national center of excellence for UAS. The school leads the Alliance for System Safety of UAS Through Research Excellence, also called ASSURE.