Drones will be demonstrated and evaluated in Mississippi by the Department of Homeland Security starting this fall, the Sun Herald reports.
Mississippi State University will lead the project.
Research and development of small unmanned aerial systems, known as drones, will be conducted at Camp Shelby, which is the Army National Guard’s national drone-training center; buffer zone areas at Stennis Space Center, which is used for Department of Defense special-operations training; and restricted airspace accessible from the U.S. Coast Guard facilities on Singing River Island in Jackson County.
“Mississippi has a number of unique assets that facilitate unmanned aircraft test flights that aren’t found in many other places, and we can fly year-round,” said Dallas Brooks, director of MSU’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, who will lead the demonstration-range team.
Drones will be evaluated in a variety of simulated scenarios such as border protection; floods, fires and earthquakes; highway and rail accidents and containment of hazardous-materials spills.
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