Unmanned Aircraft Systems and the Nordic Challenges

The European Union (EU) regulations regarding the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) that came into force in 2021 emphasise technological and operational safety. Those regulations have been developed on the common rules in the field of civil aviation and establishing a European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The implementation of the regulations and compliant UAS operator activities are still the ground of the future. Therefore, it is essential to systematically gather information about all the factors affecting UAS operations in a safe and meaningful manner. This book chapter introduces the Nordic as well as generic challenges for UAS operations. The challenges can be divided into two main categories: technological and operational. Based on the extensive literature review and authors’ practical experience, both types of challenges are grouped by relevance topics. For example, the weather-related phenomena challenges overlap in both technological and operational categories but still can be mitigated differently. Technological challenges are usually mitigated by UAS design and human-computer interactions, while operational challenges may be mitigated with legislation and organisational activities and personal UAS operator qualities. Finally, the needs for further research on the challenges affecting safe UAS operations are discussed.