Oklahoma’s Role in the Emerging UAS Industry

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin

One of the most important and promising sectors of our state economy is represented by the aerospace industry. More than 150,000 Oklahoma jobs support the aerospace industry with an annual payroll of $5 billion. Even better, these jobs represent high-skill, high-salary work: the average aerospace employee makes nearly twice the average salary in Oklahoma.

With more than $12.5 billion in annual industrial output and exports of $4.4 billion to 170 countries, aerospace in Oklahoma is making a large footprint both in the United States and overseas. The industry will continue to be a big part of Oklahoma’s economy for years to come. The challenge moving forward is to continue to build on our momentum and to position Oklahoma to address new technologies and opportunities.

One of the most exciting opportunities on that front exists in the area of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Though still only a small fraction of the industry, UAS technology is the single fastest growing area in aerospace, offering an extremely diverse array of potential applications.

Knowing that Oklahoma must attract UAS business to stay competitive, I created the Unmanned Aerospace Systems Council in 2011, with the goal of making Oklahoma the go-to place for UAS research, development, and testing.

Oklahoma already offers many assets, which the UAS industry values, and our list of assets continue to grow.

These unique strengths are paying off for Oklahoma, attracting new investments and jobs to the state. In June, I was pleased to announce our latest in what we hope will be a long line of success stories. Impressed by Oklahoma’s existing UAS capabilities, labor pool, access to restricted airspace, and the number of clear flying days, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate chose Oklahoma as the test site for the new Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety (RAPS) Program.

The program will evaluate and test small UAS in the restricted airspace near Fort Sill, focusing on possible applications for first responders, including search and rescue scenarios, response to radiological and chemical incidents, and fire response and mapping.
 

A look at the range of UAS and aerospace research and development occurring around Oklahoma.

The emergence of the UAS industry has created many opportunities along with many new challenges. As UAS’ integrate into the national airspace, new technology are needed to ensure safe operation of UAS operating alongside manned aircraft in the national airspace. Oklahoma is playing an important role in addressing these challenges. Oklahoma State University (OSU) is the first university in the country to introduce an unmanned systems option in aerospace engineering at the graduate level (both MS and PhD), building on their strengths in UAS R&D. The University of Oklahoma (OU), recognized as a national leader in weather and radar research, is active in important UAS-related research. The areas of research are sense-and-avoid technology, advanced radar and remote sensing, and new emerging disciplines such as aeroecology-used for small UAS detection and for discriminating between unmanned vehicles and biological airborne objects such as bats and birds. Both OSU and OU are actively collaborating as part of our larger Oklahoma team to support our efforts to grow the industry.

Moving forward, my administration will continue to focus on ways to bring exciting new technologies, research, and investment into the state of Oklahoma. The Robotic Aircraft for Public Safety (RAPS) program is one example of the many ways in which we are working to make the state a research leader and to benefit from the jobs and economic growth that come with that effort.