Raytheon to design, maintain air traffic management system for New York UAS testing corridor

The Raytheon Company has been selected to help design, build and support a next-generation air traffic management system for an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) testing airspace corridor in New York State, the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research (NUAIR) Alliance announced on Thursday.

Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business will create a distributed low-power radar (LPR) network for the UAS test corridor located 50 miles west of Griffiss International Airport. The air traffic management system will be capable of cover and control of low-altitude flights.

“UASs are playing an increasingly important role in our society, which means we must have low-altitude air traffic management solutions,” Matt Gilligan, vice president of Raytheon’s Navigation, Weather and Services mission area, said. “The New York airspace corridor is the first-of-its-kind, but it won’t be the last.”

Companies will be able to test drones and air traffic management technologies in the corridor. Data generated from the tests will help guide innovation and regulations that advance the use of commercial drones.

“We have identified the most qualified organizations to complete the New York UTM corridor and expand our UAS testing capabilities,” Ret. Maj. Gen. Marke “Hoot” Gibson, CEO of NUAIR Alliance, said. “With all our state economic and technical support, I think we are well positioned to accelerate the UAS industry and further establish this region as a national leader.”

An LPR network created by installing radar units on existing phone towers and tall buildings would be capable of providing safe landings of planes and drones, aviation surveillance, precision weather observations, detection and tracking of small drones, border security and surveillance, detection of wildfires, and elevation and geographic gap fills.