Thales selected for Finland’s Technical Research Centre’s (VTT) U-Space Pilot

• Thales will provide VTT (Technical Research Centre of Finland) with its next generation Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system, enabling airspace management for unmanned aircraft in compliance with European regulatory standards.
• Thales's Topsky - AstraUTM will provide a scalable, automated platform for Finland’s Drolo 2 research and innovation initiative for U-Space airspace management.

The U-Space Finland Precommercial Pilot Implementation project, part of VTT’s Drolo 2 Project, aims to develop and deploy automated, secure, scalable drone systems, products and services. This will support a wide range of drone applications, including logistics, agriculture, forestry, airport and construction operations. Additionally, the project seeks to establish a robust Finnish Drolo innovation and business ecosystem which will accelerate development and secure a competitive edge in the drone industry. The aim is that U-Space services, within european regulations, can be launched, tested and piloted in Finland making it the first or one of the first countries to do so.

The Living Lab test environment based in the Oulu region of Finland, as part of the Drolo project, is ideal in many ways, as it combines piloting with various service needs and flight environments, such as a medium-sized international airport, seaport, inhabited island, medium-sized city center and a 5G development centre.

This initiative marks a key milestone in the integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into Finnish airspace, ensuring operations are conducted safely, efficiently, and in full compliance with EU regulations.VTT needed a scalable, cloud-based U-Space system for research and operations, and TopSky-AstraUTM delivers real-time traffic management, compliance monitoring, and safe integration of unmanned and manned flights, with added weather services for enhanced safety and decision-making.

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