By: Dawn Zoldi
When lives and communities are on the line, “good enough” UAS training is not really good enough. ASSUREd Safe, the public safety training arm of the FAA’s Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE), exists to ensure first responders show up with more than just a drone and a Part 107 card. Instead, they show up with validated skills, data‑driven procedures and a safety case leadership can trust.
ASSUREd Safe turns rigorous UAS research into practical training, standards and credentials that first responders can rely on for high‑stakes operations, from search and rescue (SAR) and wildfire overwatch to disaster assessment and complex event security. Its programs are designed to keep pace with rapidly evolving public safety concepts like drone‑as‑first‑responder (DFR), drone‑in‑a‑box (DIB), beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and the emerging advanced air mobility (AAM) ecosystem.
The First Responder Behind ASSUREd Safe
BJ McClenton, Associate Director of ASSUREd Safe, has lived the public safety drone evolution on the ground and in the air. He began in agriculture and rural community support, helping farmers and producers use drones to survey fields, assess crop damage and perform post‑storm assessments long before there were established platforms with clear FAA pathways. Over time, his work intersected with emergency management and first response.
With a background in EMS and firefighting, McClenton quickly became the person local emergency managers and sheriff’s offices called when a child went missing, a tornado ripped through town or floodwaters reshaped entire communities. He used drones to support SAR, monitor fires, document damage and help strike teams perform urban and rural assessments in the difficult hours and days after major events. Those real‑world deployments gave him a front‑row seat to the promise and limitations of early public safety drone use.
“I was one of those guys that started trying to figure out what we do with technology,” he recalled. “Yes, we can fly the drones, we can take the images, but then what do we do with it after that?” That question sits at the heart of ASSUREd Safe’s mission: helping agencies build full‑fledged programs that turn flights into decisions, data into evidence and concepts into standard operating procedures (SOPs) that stand up under scrutiny.
From Research to Real‑World Readiness
In 2015, the FAA established ASSURE, its Center of Excellence (COE) for safely integrating UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS). Led by Mississippi State University, ASSURE brings together more than 30 U.S. and international universities to conduct testing, analysis and safety research that informs FAA policy and regulations.
“What’s great about ASSURE,” McClenton explained, “is that it’s not just a single university… It’s over 30 universities… that have the capability and expertise to execute different pieces of the research and collaborate with others when it comes to these different projects and these different tests.”
That deep bench of expertise allows ASSURE to evaluate new UAS concepts in realistic conditions, from disaster environments to complex shared airspace, and then quantify the risks and requirements around them.
ASSUREd Safe sits under this umbrella as the training arm, designed to “take all those different findings from the research that ASSURE does and put them into practice… for creating training [and] creating standards that are FAA‑sponsored.” In other words, the same rigorous work that shapes regulations also shapes the curriculum used to prepare the next generation of UAS first responders.
A Mission Focused on First Responders
ASSUREd Safe’s mission is “to educate, train, certify, and credential first responders for using UAS in the national airspace.” McClenton described it as a “federated ecosystem” that brings together FAA, FEMA, NIST, DoD, state and local agencies, plus first responder organizations, around a common safety and training framework.
The end goal is to help public safety keep pace with rapidly changing technology so they can “employ UAS in a safe and efficient manner to support their missions,” from missing‑person searches and wildfire overwatch to post‑disaster damage assessment and situational awareness at major events. That includes not only stick‑and‑rudder flying, but also policies, procedures, data handling, community engagement, and interagency interoperability.
For agencies and administrators, that matters. Leaders funding UAS programs and insurers, McClenton noted, “are going to want to know what’s the training that you have and what makes that training valuable.” Instead of a patchwork of ad hoc courses, ASSUREd Safe offers an accredited, standards-based framework “adopted nationwide,” that answers those questions.
Tiered Training Built on Real Missions
Instead of a one‑size‑fits-all course, McClenton and his team deliberately built ASSUREd Safe in a tiered progression that mirrors the real evolution of public safety drone programs. McClenton explained that it starts with “basic and foundational training for those new programs, new operators… as they get into the field or [are] standing up those programs,” and then advances into intermediate and advanced training with specialized endorsements. Those offshoots will focus on mission profiles such as SAR, fixed‑wing and VTOL operations, mapping, and specific software workflows.
For example, the 5-day Basic UAS Operator Course provides 40‑hours of foundational education designed specifically for public safety. Each student gets at least 10 hours of flight time, working through NIST lanes for core proficiency and then realistic law enforcement, fire and EMS scenarios. “We try to keep [the scenarios] very general to public safety,” he said, and “make it as real‑world as possible,” while keeping them broad enough to apply across disciplines and regions.
ASSUREd Safe also provides course delivery flexibility through in person, hands-on courses hosted nationwide by ASSUREd Safe and university partners, as well as online offerings. For example, its FEMA‑sponsored courses include flight operations and data analytics. ASSUREd Safe delivers these at no cost to eligible participants and SLTT communities. It also provides both online and virtual courses focused on foundational UAS basics, legal aspects of drone use, mapping and data analytics and hazard‑specific response concepts. The intent is not just to pass a test, but to send operators back to their agencies with repeatable skills they can employ on day one.
Closing the Gaps: Data, Law, Policy and Public Trust
Because of his background helping farmers and local responders use drones for assessments and mitigation, McClenton has a clear-eyed view about where drone programs typically stumble. “They know how to fly, they know how to take pictures and take videos,” he said, “but… what do they do with that data? Processing and analyzing data, I think, is one of the biggest gaps.” ASSUREd Safe targets this and several other recurring problem areas:
- Data and analytics: Courses walk agencies from basic imagery collection into processing, analyzing and using data for decision‑quality insights, including modeling relevant to accident scenes and post‑disaster landscapes.
- Legal and regulatory: Dedicated modules address FAA rules, waivers, certificates of authorization or waivers (COAs), airspace limitations, public safety carve‑outs, privacy and civil liberties, all through the lens of real missions like DFR, disaster response and event overwatch.
- Policy and programmatics: Beyond flying, ASSUREd Safe teaches program planning, equipment procurement and maintenance, battery and log management, cybersecurity and records retention.
- Community outreach: McClenton stressed the importance of “that public awareness piece… making sure they understand that you have a program, what you’re doing with the program, and their privacy concerns are addressed” so the public knows “we’re not spying on [them]… these are tools that are being used for good.”
He also sees standardization and shared language as key to interoperability. Early ASSURE disaster‑preparedness work revealed that “there wasn’t any interoperability between the different first responder agencies” using drones. Today, FEMA‑backed courses are aligned with incident command structures, and ASSUREd Safe is contributing to emerging doctrine that formally incorporates drones into air operations.
Making Training Accessible, Especially Where It’s Needed Most
Reach matters. McClenton, who started as a volunteer, knows how resource gaps can shape outcomes. “The volunteer force is probably 80% of your first responders out there, if not more… they show up… [but] they don’t always have the tools or always have the resources.” He also pointed out that when tornadoes and other disasters hit, it is often the rural communities “that get impacted very hard,” especially those already struggling to get by.
In response, ASSUREd Safe actively pushes its training out, and does not wait for big‑city departments to come to them. Through FEMA’s National Training and Education Division, the team delivers four free, in‑person FEMA UAS courses, two on flight operations and two on data analytics, across the country. They have already reached more than 30 states and most FEMA regions, with an explicit focus on underserved and “grassroots” communities.
ASSUREd Safe also offers sponsored deliveries of its five‑day UAS Operator Course at no cost to the first responders. “We’re willing to travel wherever we need to,” McClenton emphasized.
To further enable local response, ASSUREd Safe is also building a national database of credentialed UAS operators. Emergency managers and administrators will be able to search for qualified pilots and data analysts near them when they need mapping, overwatch or analytics support during crises. The vision, McClenton said, is that “any first responder who responds to a disaster… has the same working knowledge of those standards [and] protocols,” and can plug in seamlessly with others on scene.
“We want to make sure that we get first responders out in the field with hands-on [training] to make sure they have that proficiency in their operation skills,” he emphasized.
Preparing for DFR 2.0, BVLOS and AAM
Public safety drone ops continue to shift fast, from patrol‑car drones to rooftop DFR to DIB-based DFR 2.0 and BVLOS operations that will ultimately blend into AAM ecosystems. Regulatory change moves alongside it, from the impending Part 108 rule to new counter‑UAS authorities and dedicated federal training centers. (See prior AG coverage of Part 108 implications for public safety and implementation of the SAFER Skies Act).
ASSUREd Safe positions itself as a bridge into that future. “There’s definitely going to be a different type of training,” McClenton said of BVLOS and DFR 2.0. “We’re waiting on the regulations to come out, of course… but [we’re] working with different partners already operating fixed‑wing and VTOL systems to understand the tools, resources and procedures those operations will require,” he noted.
He expects that BVLOS operations will require not just new piloting techniques, but a deeper “resource bank” of sensors, communications, detect‑and‑avoid (DAA) capabilities and risk‑management practices. All of these will need to be translated into training that first responders can absorb and apply under stress. By feeding test results and risk assessments from ASSURE’s research into standards, guidance and credentialed curricula, ASSUREd Safe helps agencies prepare for not just today’s drone operations, but tomorrow’s AAM‑enabled public safety missions.
How to Plug Into ASSUREd Safe’s Public Safety Training Ecosystem
For public safety leaders, program managers and line‑level operators who want to build or elevate a drone program with a solid safety and training foundation, McClenton outlined several concrete steps and priorities:
- Start with a strong foundation: The five‑day UAS Operator Course provides 40 hours of instruction and at least 10 hours of flight per student, from NIST lanes to public‑safety‑specific scenarios.
- Leverage funded opportunities: The ASSUREd Safe UAS Operator Course is currently offered at no cost, along with FEMA‑sponsored training in flight operations and data analytics is also available at no cost and is specifically designed for emergency management and first responder communities.
- Use progressive training: Pair online courses that cover UAS basics, legal aspects and data concepts with live, in-person scenario‑driven training for hands-on proficiency.
- Think beyond the drone: Build policy, procedures, cybersecurity, data protection and community engagement into your program design from day one.
- Keep training and education continuous: “Stay practicing… stay vigilant,” McClenton urged, and “stay up to speed on the policies and regulations” as they evolve.
Agencies can discover course offerings and request training via the ASSUREd Safe website. McClenton recommends frequently checking the calendar for upcoming deliveries. Interested parties can also contact the team directly to host a class or discuss tailored options.
For organizations that want their drones and future AAM capabilities to arrive in the field with validated performance, credible safety cases and regulatory alignment, McClenton and ASSUREd Safe offer a solid research‑backed, mission‑tested path to get there.
Watch BJ McClenton on Episode #113 of the Dawn of Autonomy podcast.