Pierce Aerospace granted follow-on award for FAA Remote ID research

Pierce Aerospace has been granted an award from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) as a follow-on effort in support of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Alliance for System Safety of UAS Through Research Excellence (ASSURE) programme.

ASSURE comprises 30 research institutions and over a hundred industry and government partners across a broad spectrum of research areas. This is the second award Pierce Aerospace has received for its Remote ID work from ERAU in support of ASSURE. The company has detected 100 million Remote ID transmissions to date.

“We are honored to be selected to continue to aid in advanced research related to Remote Identification,” said Aaron Pierce, CEO of Pierce Aerospace. “The FAA ASSURE programme is vital to informing the FAA about new developments with UAS integration into the National Airspace System. The initial effort saw our Remote ID sensors deployed across the country to sample airspace in rural, suburban, and urban airspace and a diverse variety of airports. We worked with a lot of early adopters, whom we appreciate and who have benefited from the data collected by our Remote ID sensors. With this follow-on effort, we’ll expand the research to cover entire cities and even more airports, bringing more sensors across the country while making the airspace safer.”

“Remote ID is showing great potential to provide safety intelligence about the state of UAS operations within the National Airspace System (NAS),” said Ryan Wallace, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor at ERAU. “Through this vital follow-on research and expansion of prior work, we’re applying first-of-its-kind detection data and analysis to investigate how Remote ID can be utilised to enhance the safety and security of the NAS. This data collection effort with Pierce Aerospace and our research with programme partners at Kansas State University, the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University, and the University of North Dakota will continue to inform and benefit the FAA and aviation stakeholders across the country.”

“ASSURE creates a high-value impact for the FAA,” said Pierce. “These awards are cost-share, and the cost-share approach generates significant data collection for the FAA that would have otherwise been cost-prohibitive. This follow-on effort enables our team to start scaling the deployment of our sensors to further benefit the FAA, the general public, numerous aviation stakeholders, and the local stakeholders in the areas where our sensors are deployed.”

In January, Pierce Aerospace received a USD 10 million Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity subcontract from Amentum to support evolving Remote ID requirements from the US Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate.