The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Secure Autonomous Flight Environment (U-SAFE) is a $250M program, being led by Gryphon Sensors in the Central NY region. This five-year program is a Central NY economic initiative to provide infrastructure and resources to attract the expanding UAS industry to Central NY. U-SAFE will integrate low-altitude, small UAS (sUAS) into the National Airspace (NAS) and create a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system for low-altitude, sUAS to enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.
The U-SAFE program will allow for testing of sUAS and commercial applications to include package delivery, railway and power line inspection, precision agriculture and security applications, specifically surrounding airports. This multi-year program will be implemented in a phased approach beginning in 2016 and will include an instrumented corridor extending from Griffiss International Airport to Syracuse, NY. In addition, through its National Unmanned Aerial Standardized Performance Testing and Rating (NUSTAR), U-SAFE will be the first to set standards for UAS airworthiness certification. A UAS drone innovation and business park will be constructed to facilitate collaboration in the UAS industry.