26 October 2021
Trials of the British Army’s Watchkeeper Remotely Piloted Air System from Keevil Airfield this summer have been so successful that the Ministry of Defence wants to create a permanent Danger Area around the Wiltshire airfield.
A total of 21 live sorties were flown by the 47th Regiment Royal Artillery.
“As a result of this success, it is now the intent of the MOD to fly Watchkeeper from Keevil Airfield on a more regular basis,” says the ACP.
“The long-term output from Keevil Airfield is anticipated to provide a bespoke location to train, generate and enhance RPAS capability whilst supporting essential wider military training on Salisbury Plain.
This is what the Keevil TDA looked like during the trials. Image: Skydemon
“The requirement is to fly large RPAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight between Keevil Airfield and Salisbury Plain Danger Area EG D123. This was presented to the CAA at the first stage of the ACP process and the CAA has agreed that an airspace change is an appropriate means by which to achieve this.”
All the details of the airspace change proposal are available on the CAA’s Airspace Change Portal. The ACP identification number is ACP-2021-006. Responses regarding the Draft Design Principles are required by Friday 19 November 2021.
5 comments
The airspace shown at Keevil is the parachute zone I believe, not the proposed PDA. I can’t see anything in the ACP as it stands that defines that.
They state
“Operating from Keevil will allow for essential aircrew and groundcrew training in an environment that is currently not possible from other UK locations.”
A good Bullsh*t statement with no detail or explanation. Exactly why can’t they do the same training taking off from Boscombe Down, Upavon, Netheravon or other sites already in the Salisbury Plane danger area, or indeed at the other dedicated drone testing areas such as Aberporth or Llanbedr.
Why can’t they fit Watchkeeper with an autonomous Detect and avoid system as would be required if they were going to do BVLOS operations outside a danger area in the US, then they don’t need a TDA.
Why do the need a large circle around the airfield for launch and recovery, surely these drones don’t need to make a 2 mile straight in approach? Surely a much smaller circle around the airfield with a corridor to the danger area would be better.
They need to provide a danger area crossing service to allow any traffic through when the drone isn’t actually flying in the TDA.
It doesn’t say what height, it should be limited to 400ft AGL.
Boscombe already has airspace (Notam activated) to allow Watchkeeper ops, but I’m guessing this is disruptive to other Boscombe users such as ETPS, and equally manned ops prevent Watchkeeper from operating at will, so probably not satisfactory to either the Army or Boscombe. Keevil has hard runways from memory, whereas Netheravon and Upavon are grass, so not so suitable for something the size and complexity of WK. It’s known as Watchkeeper 450 because its a 450kg sized platform – so same as a light sport aircraft, and requiring same sort of capacity – so it does do circuits at normal sorts of height agl and 400ft wouldn’t work. The size of the proposed DAin the ACP is larger than that shown above, and clearly intended to overlap D123, which makes sense given the stated aim. Llanbedr/Aberporth are obviously of no use for ops at SPTA where training with other Army units is the aim, not test or just platform training. However, I don’t see why it can’t be Notam activated – even Fairford is, and the USAF fly serious heavy metal out of there, and with the U2s, they just flick it open for launch and then again for recovery, leaving the airspace available when not in use, even during the course of one day, so its clearly do-able. Also, Boscombe airspace for WK should be rescinded if more airspace is allocated elsewhere.
No clearances were given through the TDA during the summer trial, if Watchkeeper was airborne in the plain. This is a significant restriction to GA traffic and if this ACP gets the go ahead, GA really must be allowed to transit the zone when it is active.
Yet another airspace grab by the MOD to add to vast tracks of airspace already under their control. Frankly they need to make much better use of that already in their possession, often in congested airspace before being granted more.