10164116Scaling BVLOS Operations for Critical National Infrastructure - Project SOCNIClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UK**The evolution of Atypical Air Environment through UTM based SORA mitigation** NR, Dronecloud and Railscape (t/a RUAS) have worked together to create a Centrally Managed Drone Hub at NR's Rail Operating Centre (ROC) in Birmingham, leading to Operational Authorisation for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) under the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) Atypical Air Environment (AAE) policy (CAP 3040) to improve incident management and asset inspection in a limited real-world rail environment. This proved AAE as a viable mechanism for low volume, low altitude, short distance BVLOS to gather operational experience and data but stopped short of delivering a route to scalable, long distance, higher altitude BVLOS across CNI. The key (technical, regulatory and operational) constraints of AAE are: 1.Constrained to extremely low altitudes, close to linear assets and structures increasing ground risk 2.CAA require a semi-manual notification (NOTAM) for each flight, limiting rapid response and scale 3.Restricted volume through lack of regulatory mandate to share flight information amongst airspace users. 4.Industry lacking regulatory guidance on technical & operational solutions required scale out of limited AAE **Project Aim** Project SOCNI aims to use the UK SORA 2.5 framework to identify and demonstrate key mitigations based around Uncrewed Traffic Management UTM to enable the scaling of safe BVLOS, initially under the AAE but with the view to expanding operations into AAE+ and potentially other structures such as Temporary Restriction Areas (TRAs) & Transponder Mandatory Zones (TMZs). **DELIVERY** Engaging with Network Rail, British Transport Police (BTP), Transport for Wales (TfW) NATS en Route (NERL) and drone operators Railscape t/a RUAS over the CNI network, we will create a structured approach to designing, deploying and testing safety mitigations. We will test and assess the effectiveness and impact of each mitigation and provide a roadmap for deploying the strategy over CNI to enable scalable BVLOS with realistic milestone delivery targets mapped to a CNI specific roadmap.