Daily briefing
Satellite Applications Catapult announced on 29 September that it is expanding its Westcott facility into the National Autonomy and Drone Innovation Centre, backed by £2.25 million from Buckinghamshire Council. Planned capabilities include controlled PNT, communications and autonomy testing, a motion platform, robotic test equipment and a remote-operations control room. Initial equipment is expected from autumn 2026, with the full facility targeted for the second half of 2027.
Component builders need repeatable environments for proving navigation, communications and autonomy behavior before those components become part of an operator's safety case.
SMEs should look at what the facility can measure and reproduce, not just whether it offers airspace. Repeatable GNSS-degraded, communications and moving-platform tests can be more valuable than another open field when the development problem is system assurance.