Britain's NADIC test centre is being built around repeatable drone-safety evidence
Satellite Applications Catapult announced the National Autonomy and Drone Innovation Centre at Westcott on 29 September, backed by £2.25 million from Buckinghamshire Council. First equipment is expected to become operational in autumn 2026, with the full facility planned for the second half of 2027.
Wed, 30 Sep 2026
Commercial programs need somewhere to reproduce edge cases, collect evidence and validate changes without turning every test into a bespoke airspace exercise.
The value of NADIC will depend on which test environments, instrumentation, weather capabilities and regulatory evidence packages it can offer repeatedly to manufacturers and operators.