DOD Officials Approve East Coast UAS and AAM Test Corridor

Government agencies are developing a prototype testing and evaluation corridor for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies.

Jack Daleo

Friday, June 02, 2023 at 01:05 PM ET

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The NARTP facility opened in 2017 in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. [Courtesy: Stockton University]

Key Takeaways:

Inspired by New York's successful drone testing corridor, New Jersey's National Aerospace Research and Technology Park (NARTP) is developing a new advanced air mobility (AAM) and uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) testing corridor.
This 78-mile "dual-use" corridor, connecting Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (NJ) to Dover Air Force Base (DE), is backed by the Department of Defense's U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and Air Mobility Command (AMC).
The initiative aims to demonstrate and evaluate military, commercial, and academic drone and air taxi technologies, with NARTP also pursuing other autonomous aviation projects like airfield automation.

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Since the completion of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance’s (NUAIR) 50-mile drone testing corridor in 2019, the state of New York has conducted drone integration evaluations for the FAA, flown routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) tests, and even experimented with 5G technology.

New York’s drone corridor has been a major boon for the state’s wider aviation industry and the development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies—so much so that its Tri-State area neighbor is planning to build its own.