On 19th March 2026 Tim Strohbach of Fraunhofer IFAM and his colleagues from the DIOL project held a workshop in Brussels on ”Harmonizing Drone Operational Procedures for BVLOS Missions over the North Sea“. More than 40 stakeholders from the national civil aviation authorities, the ministries as well as ATC and military gathered with drone operators and offshore industry representatives to speak about the operation of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS or drones) over the North Sea.
The long term goal of the event were:
- Harmonization of the practical application of EU 2019/947 for offshore BVLOS
- Developing a common understanding/guidelines of cross-border operations (including FIR changes)
Fruitful discussions highlighted the importance of this topic for the North Sea coastal states. In the upcoming meeting, the aim is to further gather best practices and pave the way for safe and well-coordinated operations of UAS over the North Sea.
Scaling up UAS operations here is a key enabler in and outside the EU for efficient logistics powering the North Sea goal of 300 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 of the recent Hamburg Declaration.
📩 𝗞𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗸𝘁: If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tim Strohbach.
Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) refers to operating drones outside the pilot's direct visual range, through the use of sensors, GPS and cameras for long-range tasks.
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