Mississippi joins other Gulf states to be UAV test site

Mississippi has joined two other Gulf Coast states – Alabama and Florida – in bidding to become one of six Federal Aviation Administration sites nationwide to test Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) for the Federal Aviation Administration. Mississippi Development Authority officials insist the state’s facilities offer existing assets at little to no cost – including airspace at Camp Shelby, Stennis Space Center and the Gulf of Mexico’s test ranges, controlled by the Air National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center in Gulfport. Congress directed the FAA to determine and use of test sites for integrating current air traffic with UAVs. Today, drones can only be flown across American air space with permission and for non-commercial purposes. Mississippi has three UAV manufacturers – Stark Aerospace and Aurora Flight Sciences in the Golden Triangle near Columbus and a Northrop Grumman assembly plant at Moss Point - and a flight laboratory at Mississippi State University. Source: Biloxi-Gulfport Sun Herald, Aug. 23, 2013.