Dronedesk

How Network Rail is using drones to keep trains moving - RailUK Network Rail is stepping up drone use on its East Midlands route to help teams respond to incidents faster and reduce risk on the ground. Since Sept 2025, flights have saved around £100k by speeding up checks and avoiding line blocks. In the past 90 days, trained mobile operations managers flew 500+ minutes on planned and emergency jobs, covering everything from lineside fires (with infrared checks) to trespass and flooding. It’s a practical example of drones improving day-to-day rail operations. 👍 #drones #rail #safety #operations #dronedesk

808 people responded to the CAA's electronic conspicuity consultation. Just 47 of them were from the UAS industry. The industry that arguably has the most at stake. 737 responses were from the GA community. The CAA just published CAP 3217, its response to that consultation. The results will shape the rules every BVLOS operator flies under. And the drone community honestly barely showed up. Meanwhile, the GA community made their voice heard. Loudly. 74.3% opposed requiring slow aircraft to carry EC. 66.46% opposed a mandate altogether. Nearly 60% of GA respondents were hang glider, paraglider, and paramotor pilots. They organised. They responded. They shaped the outcome. And the outcome may end up a real problem for the drone industry. The CAA itself acknowledges that expecting drones to detect manned aircraft without EC "is not currently possible." But ADS-B stays optional for manned aircraft. If they don't transmit, your drone can't see them. Your SORA safety case gets weaker. Your detect-and-avoid system has a blind spot. The technical direction for UAS is clear: transmit on 978 MHz, receive on 1090 and 978. 76.9% supported that. Fine. But the effectiveness of that system depends entirely on whether manned aircraft participate. Unfortunately, the consultation data says they don't want to. So here's what I'm genuinely curious about: - Where was the drone industry on this? - Is it apathy? Do we just not care enough about the regulatory process until it directly blocks an operation? - Is it fatalism? Have we decided our voice won't be heard anyway, so why bother? - Is it silent agreement? Maybe 71 responses means the UAS community is broadly happy with what's proposed? - Or are we too busy building the technology to engage with the policy that governs it? I don't have the answer. But 47 out of 808 is not a number this industry should be comfortable with. A mandate consultation launches this month. Let's hope more of the drone industry shows up for that one. You can read a full summary of the consultation on the Dronedesk blog (link in comments). #drones #BVLOS #UAS #ElectronicConspicuity #CAP3217 #UKAviation

Fifth military drone manufacturer to set up in Swindon - BBC News Neros Technologies joins four other companies, including TEKEVER and STARK, building drones for the UK armed forces and European allies. Swindon is now a major player in the global drone industry. #dronetechnology #uav #nationalsecurity #aerospace #Swindon

🗓 Agri-Tech Frontiers: Don’t Fear the Audit - Master It! 🚁 CAA audit season doesn’t have to mean sleepless nights. On 5 March at12:00–13:00 (GMT), join ARPAS-UK for “Inside the CAA Audit: A Practical Guide to Stress-Free Compliance” - a practical, operator-led session designed to make audits feel manageable, not mysterious. Speakers: - Andy Sproson (AutoSpray Systems) - Dorian Ellis (Dronedesk) - Craig Lippett MSc (Eagle Eye Innovations Ltd) What you’ll take away: ✅ What a CAA audit actually involves (and what it doesn’t) ✅ Simple, effective record-keeping habits that save hours ✅ Real-world insights from operators who’ve been through it ✅ Live Q&A to tackle your specific compliance questions Whether you’re heading into your first audit or tightening up your current workflow, this one will give you clarity and confidence. 📅 5 March | 12:00–13:00 GMT 🎯 For: Operators, Accountable Managers, Agri-Tech project teams 🔗 Register: https://lnkd.in/ep--iCME #AgriTechFrontiers #DroneCompliance #CAA #UAS #AgriDrones #Dronedesk #ARPASUK

EU AI Act (heard if it?): What Your Business Needs to Do The EU AI Act's first compliance deadline passed on 2 February 2025. Most UK businesses don't know that. Most haven't done anything about it. If your company has any EU clients and uses AI tools, even just Copilot, ChatGPT, or software with AI baked in, this regulation applies to you. Here's what you need to know... The AI literacy obligation is already live. Since 2 February 2025, any business that provides or deploys AI systems must ensure its staff have sufficient AI literacy. Not a future deadline. Not a recommendation. A legal requirement, in force now. You're probably both a provider and a deployer and don't know it. Using AI tools internally makes you a deployer. Building AI functionality into your own product or service makes you a provider. The obligations are different, and many businesses haven't stopped to work out which category they're actually in. Watch out for the "vendor trap." If you customise a third-party AI tool beyond its intended purpose - custom prompts, fine-tuning, wrapping it in your own interface - you can be reclassified from deployer to provider, with significantly heavier obligations. This catches a lot of SaaS companies off guard. The questions every business should be able to answer right now: ❓ Do you have an inventory of every AI system your team uses, including tools with embedded AI? ❓ Have you classified each one against the EU AI Act risk tiers? ❓ Has your team had any formal AI literacy training? ❓ If you've built AI into your own product, have you documented why it's not high risk? ❓ Do your published AI-generated or AI-assisted content carry transparency disclosures? If you can't answer most of those, you're not alone, but the clock's ticking. The dates that matter are: 📅 2 February 2025 - AI literacy obligation: already in force 📅 August 2026 - High-risk AI system requirements kick in 📅 December 2026 - EU Product Liability Directive: AI software treated as a "product" under strict liability law We've just been through this process at Dronedesk as a UK SaaS provider with EU clients, we had no choice. Happy to share what we learned if it's useful. Full write-up on the blog (link in comments). AI Disclosure: This post was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed before publication. 🙂

⚠️ New UK Restricted Airspace - Drone Operators Take Note! 40 new drone-only Restricted Airspace around Ministry of Defence Prohibited Places come into effect with the next AIRAC schedule on 19 February 2026. These regulations (SI 2026/64) replace the previous 2024 restrictions and cover MoD sites across the UK, including naval bases, RAF stations, defence research facilities, and US visiting forces locations. Altitude limits vary by site, ranging from 500ft to 2,900ft AMSL - that is "No unmanned aircraft shall fly over a facility to which these Regulations apply below the altitude specified in [...] the Schedule." What you need to know: The full details are published in Statutory Instrument SI 2026-64 and will appear in the UK AIP - ENR 5.1 (from 19 Feb) on the NATS website. Check NOTAM B0203/26 for NSA amendments within ENR 5.1. If you need to operate inside any of these Restricted Areas, you'll need to complete and submit a notification form via the CAA Customer Portal (ACOMS). Exemptions, if approved, are then issued by the relevant site authority. Exemptions apply for emergency services, MoD operations, and specific defence contractors at named sites but for everyone else, these are no-go zones without prior approval. For Dronedesk users; these new restricted areas will, as always, be automatically included in your site plan map layers, so you'll see them flagged during flight planning. One less thing to worry about. 👍 Stay safe, stay compliant. #drones #UAS #droneoperators #airspace #UAV #flightsafety #droneregulation #UK #SORA #Dronedesk