Civil Aviation Authority Opens Israel to a National Drone Network: First Call for Proposals Launched

The Israel Innovation Authority published the first call for proposals of the National Drone Initiative this week, inviting companies to demonstrate unmanned traffic management (UTM) capabilities, a technical prerequisite for any large-scale commercial drone network. At the same time, the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel approved Percepto to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at three sites in Israel, including a facility belonging to Mekorot.

A Government-Industry Project Born From the COVID Crisis

The National Drone Initiative was established this year as a joint project between government bodies and private industry players, driven by the understanding that the COVID-19 crisis exposed an urgent need for autonomous transport solutions that don't depend on human contact or congested road infrastructure. The stated goal is ambitious: building a national drone network for commercial deliveries, medical transport, and eventually urban air mobility. The project is attempting to leap directly from isolated pilot programs to national infrastructure, a jump that raises plenty of questions about the actual pace of progress.

Key partners in the initiative include the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI), the Israel Innovation Authority, the Fourth Industrial Revolution Center Israel (C4IR Israel), and the Ministry of Transportation. This combination of regulator, government funding body, and international organization is meant to create a track where regulation is updated in real time to match technological progress on the ground, rather than the other way around.

The First Call for Proposals Focuses on Air Traffic Management

The Israel Innovation Authority published the initiative's first call for proposals this week. The request targets companies capable of demonstrating UTM systems, meaning software that safely manages and coordinates large numbers of autonomous drones flying simultaneously in the same airspace. Without a reliable UTM solution, any vision of a national drone network remains purely theoretical, and that's precisely the gap this call for proposals is trying to close.

The program is structured around a framework of quarterly live demonstrations, set to run consecutively from March 2021 through the end of 2023. The idea is to let the regulator gradually adjust the rules as each demonstration proves a new capability in the field.

• Initiative launched: 2020, in response to the COVID-19 crisis
• First call for proposals: October 2020, issued by the Israel Innovation Authority
• Call for proposals topic: demonstrating unmanned traffic management (UTM) capabilities
• Planned quarterly demonstrations: March 2021 through 2023

Percepto Is Already Flying Beyond Visual Line of Sight

While the UTM call for proposals is just getting underway, Israeli company Percepto is already ahead of the curve. The Civil Aviation Authority approved the company to operate its industrial monitoring drones in BVLOS mode, meaning beyond the human operator's visual range, at three sites in Israel. One of these belongs to Mekorot, the national water company. This is one of the first approvals granted under the initiative's more permissive regulatory approach.

BVLOS flights are considered one of the most significant regulatory hurdles facing any commercial drone network, in Israel and elsewhere. The approval granted to Percepto, even though limited to industrial monitoring sites rather than deliveries, provides an early proof of concept that Israel's regulator is willing to move faster than what's standard in many countries around the world. It remains to be seen whether this approval pace will hold once the number of operators grows.

It's hard not to be impressed by the ability of a young Israeli company like Percepto to actually lead one of the most complex regulatory approvals in the drone world, even before the broader national framework has fully launched.