The global aviation sector stands on the precipice of its most significant transformation in decades. Until now, the skies have been the exclusive domain of crewed, commercially scheduled or military aircraft traversing tightly managed air corridors. Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) will change that. Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), heavy-lift cargo drones and urban air mobility (UAM) platforms like electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) flying taxis now increasingly occupy those same airways.
AAM has moved from a futuristic concept confined to science fiction or military testing grounds to an evolving industry on the verge of scaling into daily public life. In the United Kingdom (U.K.), a recent £50 million government funding injection, targeted at fast-tracking drone and flying taxi technology, has catalyzed this revolution. This funding represents a signalling mechanism for aviation regulators and technology partners worldwide, not just the British aerospace ecosystem.
Yet, as the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) works to progress innovation while simultaneously tightening safety frameworks, there could be an operational bottleneck looming. If we are to transition UAVs from novel, highly localised trial phases into essential, scalable, everyday realities, we must trust in our capabilities to fly safely Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS). To achieve this, drone operators will require a resilient digital backbone to support them. Standard terrestrial communications cannot support this future alone. To scale safely, the global drone revolution must look upward…to satellite connectivity.
The £50m Catalyst
In the U.K., to date, the drone sector has operated primarily in a “proof-of-concept” paradigm. We have seen isolated, highly controlled trials delivering posts to remote Scottish islands, surveying offshore wind farms and capturing agricultural data. These trials have successfully proven the mechanics of uncrewed flight, but they have not yet proven its scalability. The UK’s £50 million funding commitment accelerates the CAA’s 2026-2027 priorities to simplify safety assessments (SORA) and deliver on the Future of Flight BVLOS roadmap. This will set the stage for BVLOS operations to shift from exceptional trials into routine commercial reality.
To move from a single daily drone flight to a continuous, high-density skyway of potentially thousands of autonomous aircraft sharing airspace with commercial passenger jets, the underlying industry infrastructure must change. It must shift from localised operations to a more systemic, networked approach. Such infrastructure extends beyond physical ground masts or expanded facilities. It encompasses the digital communications systems governing airspace management.
In this environment, operations shift from manual, pilot-to-drone radio links toward an integrated Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) model. This requires combining satellite networks, terrestrial coverage and traffic management software to maintain real-time flight tracking, data exchange and collision avoidance at scale.
Complex Operations As The Norm
In this new paradigm, drones will be called upon to perform critical, high-risk tasks. As one example, medical drone delivery offers a faster and more efficient way to transport critical supplies, in some of the most demanding environments imaginable, from remote and geographically challenging regions to the highly congested airspace of major cities like London.
Viasat already supports trials to advance medical drone delivery initiatives across remote regions in APAC and suburban areas in the U.K. by providing the resilient connectivity needed to support safe BVLOS operations and to maintain dependable links in these geographically and operationally challenging environments. In these settings, resilient connectivity remains essential not only to enable safe BVLOS operations, but also to integrate uncrewed aircraft into shared airspace. Any loss of communication can have implications for safety, mission continuity and public trust. To make these life-saving services routine and scalable, the communications links guiding these aircraft must deliver the same levels of resilience and reliability expected across commercial aviation.
Terrestrial Networks Alone Cannot Clear the Runway
According to GMSA, a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change, the immediate pathway for many commercial developers has been to look to standard cellular networks, specifically 4G and 5G, to connect their scaling drone fleets. While cellular networks may be undeniably powerful for ground-based applications, they can struggle with fundamental physical and architectural limitations when applied to the safety-critical demands of aviation.
Terrestrial mobile networks are designed and optimized to serve users on the ground. Their antennas structurally tilt downwards to maximise coverage where people are situated. When uncrewed aircraft climb to operational altitude, they quickly move out of the primary coverage range. Up in the air, they can experience signal loss, interference and Radio Frequency (RF) congestion as they intercept simultaneous stray signals from multiple distant towers.
Cellular networks also suffer from significant geographical coverage gaps. These gaps become particularly acute over maritime corridors, like the English Channel, the North Sea, or the waters surrounding the Pacific islands, as well as in remote, mountainous or rural areas where installing cellular masts remains economically or logistically unfeasible.
Satellite Connectivity As The Always-On BVLOS Backbone
To satisfy the safety requirements of aviation regulators like the U.K.’s CAA, uncrewed aircraft require a high-integrity, safety-certified communications network to power their offering. This is where satellite connectivity can become the vital, always-on digital backbone of AAM.
Viasat has been at the forefront of this mission for several years, by developing Velaris, a dedicated satellite connectivity service built on the same safety-certified L-band network trusted by crewed aviation for decades. Proven across commercial and business aviation, this highly resilient infrastructure now helps to enable the safe integration of uncrewed aircraft into shared airspace. By delivering secure, bidirectional communications that are independent of terrain, altitude or terrestrial network availability, Velaris provides the dependable connectivity to support critical BVLOS operations at scale.
Velaris’ L-band satellite network, uniquely suited for safety-critical aviation, has already been trusted by the global commercial aviation and maritime industries to provide regulated global safety services for decades. The physical characteristics of the L-band radio frequency waveform makes it highly resilient and resistant to weather attenuation. This means Velaris can provide continuous connection even in the most adverse environmental conditions. If a localised ground network fails or fades, the system can transition to the satellite link. Unlike cellular networks, in remote coastal regions, a Velaris-connected drone would be able to maintain uninterrupted connection for real-time tracking, continuous surveillance and secure command-and-control (C2) regardless of how far it flies from the shore or how the conditions change. This multi-layered resilience satisfies the core safety requirement of BVLOS flight, that the remote pilot in command always has positive control over the aircraft’s trajectory.
Building a Unified Digital Skyway
However, technology is only one part of the solution. Regulation and industry-wide collaboration must also evolve. To safely integrate uncrewed aircraft into our heavily managed, shared airspace, we must build a unified, cooperative ecosystem. De-risking airspace modernisation requires deep, continuous collaboration between hardware manufacturers, satellite operators, UTM providers and national regulators like the U.K. CAA.
In a busy digital skyway, regulators and air traffic controllers must have instant, authenticated visibility over every airspace participant. If an uncrewed medical drone traverses an active flight path, it must communicate its position, speed and projected trajectory securely and instantly. High-integrity satellite networks can provide the encryption and network-grade security required to transmit this identification data in a secure way.
Proving these capabilities through rigorous testing, demonstrating link reliability and maintaining continuous industry collaboration to innovate and strengthen systems at pace will help to build the regulatory confidence needed to transition from temporary airspace restrictions to fully integrated, co-existing flights.
A Digital Blueprint for the World
The U.K.’s £50 million funding injection provides a necessary unlock for the opportunities of AAM. But funding alone will not clear our skies for take-off. We must also address key infrastructure, regulatory and security requirements to build public confidence in uncrewed flight.
We often talk about connectivity being the major enabler of AAM. By securing uncrewed flights with a resilient, satellite-powered digital backbone like Viasat’s Velaris, we can push past the limits of visual line-of-sight with trusted assurance. Whether navigating challenging, complex environments, or carrying life-saving medical payloads to remote islands, satellite communication bridges the gap between ambition and reality.
The runway is clear, the technology is available and the ecosystem is developing. The regulatory pathways are forming. By working together to build a secure, satellite-enabled digital skyway, we can ensure that AAM scales safely, harmoniously and sustainably in our globally shared skies.