This week, Frontex launched discussions with industry representatives about a possible use of remote piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) for maritime border surveillance and the potential for industry to provide these kinds of services to Frontex.
While at the moment there is no European legislation that allows the use of remotely piloted aircraft in shared airspace, the preliminary discussions were meant to explore the feasibility of extending the pool of assets providing aerial surveillance services to include medium altitude long endurance RPAS.
In a one-day workshop, Frontex met six leading vendors and operators of RPAS to inform them about how the agency would consider using such systems at Europe’s external borders. The discussions allowed Frontex to better understand various issues related to the potential use of such surveillance services.
Frontex plans to conduct first trials of the RPAS in operational scenarios later this year.