CATEC has been awarded the Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) by the State Aviation Safety Agency (AESA), a milestone that represents a significant step forward in the operational capabilities of our technology centre and consolidates its position as one of the leading national centres for the development, testing and validation of technologies related to drones and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
This LUC certificate recognises that CATEC possesses a high level of organisational, operational and safety management maturity to plan, assess, supervise and carry out UAS operations safely and in accordance with the applicable European regulatory framework. Consequently, obtaining the LUC grants CATEC greater autonomy in managing certain category-specific drone operations, within the scope and privileges approved by AESA. This enables the technology centre to manage operations more efficiently and to authorise certain pre-assessed UAS operations internally, without the need to apply for an individual operational authorisation from the authority for each flight campaign.
This capability therefore translates into greater flexibility in planning operations and reducing administrative burdens, whilst always maintaining the highest safety standards required by European regulations. Furthermore, the specific features of this certificate mean that it can be used both in Spain and in the other Member States of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
CATEC thus becomes the only operator in Spain with a LUC and its own aerodromes for testing aircraft ranging from 10 to over 1,000 kg, covering all categories from mini to MALE and HAPS, making it a leading provider of advanced UAS flight operations services at European level.
According to Antidio Viguria, Director of Avionics and Systems at CATEC, “obtaining the LUC represents a very important step for CATEC because it recognises the maturity of our organisation and our safety management system and, at the same time, gives us a greater capacity to respond flexibly to our clients’ needs, establishing us as a leading provider of advanced UAS flight operations services at European level, offering comprehensive solutions that enable complex aerial campaigns to be carried out safely, efficiently and in compliance with regulations”.
Greater flexibility for UAS testing
The award of this certificate is of particular significance for CATEC’s UAS flight operations and testing services (CATEC Flight Operations) and for the work it carries out in this field at its ATLAS flight centres, located in Jaén.
The LUC will streamline the planning and execution of certain flight campaigns at these centres, reducing the time spent on administrative procedures and providing greater flexibility to meet the needs of companies, manufacturers, technology centres and R&D&I projects that require testing and demonstrations with UAS systems.
In this way, CATEC is strengthening its ability to offer its clients a safe, flexible testing environment tailored to advanced drone operations, combining specialised infrastructure, technological expertise and operational capability in accordance with the most stringent safety standards.
The award of the LUC also recognises CATEC’s ability to integrate operational safety into all phases of its UAS operations. To obtain this certification, CATEC had to demonstrate to AESA the maturity of its organisational structure, its operational procedures and its Safety Management System (SMS), proving its ability to identify and manage the risks associated with operations and to ensure ongoing compliance with the applicable requirements.
Strengthening the European UAS ecosystem
By obtaining the LUC, CATEC takes a further step in its strategy to consolidate CATEC Flight Operations and ATLAS as leading services and infrastructure for the testing and validation of UAS systems in Spain and Europe. This certification complements the technological and experimental capabilities that CATEC makes available to the industry to facilitate the development of new solutions and accelerate their time-to-market, particularly in a rapidly evolving sector such as that of drones and unmanned aerial systems.
In this regard, the LUC offers distinct advantages: greater operational autonomy, reduced administrative lead times and the ability to respond more flexibly to the needs of test campaigns, whilst maintaining the highest standards of operational safety as a priority.
ATLAS, a benchmark environment for drone operations
The ATLAS flight test centres, located in Jaén, constitute one of CATEC’s key facilities for the development, testing, validation and demonstration of UAS technologies. Its features, including the availability of segregated airspace, excellent weather conditions and sparsely populated areas, make ATLAS a particularly suitable setting for conducting flight campaigns and advanced operations with unmanned aerial systems and drones.
In this context, the granting of the LUC reinforces ATLAS’s potential as a unique benchmark facility for the sector, by facilitating more agile management of certain operations and supporting the development of complex test campaigns, BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operations and validation processes for new UAS technologies – always within the approved operational scope and combining operational agility, high safety standards and regulatory compliance.
The combination of CATEC Flight Operations’ capabilities with ATLAS’s infrastructure enables us to offer technology and research companies and organisations a comprehensive environment in which to take their solutions from the development and experimentation phases through to testing under operational conditions and demonstration.
