By: Sergi Framis, BCN Drone Center – Autonomy Global Media Partner
Technology no longer limits the commercial adoption of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Increasingly, the ability of manufacturers and operators to demonstrate safety in a way regulators can trust limits it. Across jurisdictions, aviation authorities such as EASA in Europe and the FAA in the United States require evidence-based safety cases. However, they do so through different regulatory architectures and standards. In practice, that fragmentation creates friction for companies trying to scale internationally. BCN Drone Center (BDC) exists to help companies navigate the regulatory environment, test and certify their aircraft and operations in Europe or the United States, as well as provide opportunities for commercial success.
Global Regulations Converging
In Europe, EASA’s framework for the “specific” category relies on the Specific Operations Risk Assessment, or SORA, as an acceptable means of compliance under Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2019/947. SORA structures the safety case by assessing both ground and air risk, assigning a Specific Assurance and Integrity Level (SAIL) level and linking that level to progressively more demanding operational safety objectives and robustness requirements. EASA’s 2025 update that adopted SORA 2.5 explicitly intended to simplify the authorization process while maintaining a high level of safety and improving harmonization across member states.
In the United States, the FAA’s proposed Part 108 rule seems to be moving in a parallel direction. The agency’s Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) NPRM, published on August 7, 2025, proposed a performance-based framework to normalize routine BVLOS operations and associated third-party services such as UAS Traffic Management (UTM). The FAA has framed Part 108 as a path for safe, scalable operations, supported by testing, consensus standards, manufacturer evidence, operational limitations, and, for higher-risk operations, stronger oversight and safety management expectations. The comment period closed on October 6, 2025, was briefly reopened on specific topics through February 11, 2026. It remains under review.
This regulatory convergence matters. EASA and FAA are not identical in method, but both are moving toward risk-based, evidence-heavy, operationally grounded certification and authorization. That creates a clear market need for a testing and certification approach stringent enough to satisfy both ecosystems from the outset.
The Strategic Value of BDC
Instead of preparing separate validation paths for Europe and the U.S., manufacturers can reduce time and cost by building a single, high-assurance evidence package based on the most demanding overlapping requirements.
This means combining rigorous flight-test data, subsystem validation, configuration control, operational procedures, risk assessments and traceable documentation into one certification-ready body of evidence. The logic is simple. If a UAS program is designed to meet the stricter common denominator, regulatory adaptation becomes easier in both regions. This is an inference based on the direction of both frameworks, not a formal regulator-issued standard. This is where BCN Drone Center (BDC) becomes strategically relevant.
End-to-End Testing
BDC positions itself as an end-to-end UAS testing and certification hub. It offers testing, certification processes, engineering, training and operational support. Its infrastructure includes a dedicated segregated airspace identified as LETS31, with no other manned or unmanned flights allowed inside, an extension of 50 km² and a maximum altitude of 4,500 ft AMSL.
Physical and Digital Infrastructure
It also offers hangars, workshops, office and control spaces, prototyping services, maintenance support, safety subsystems, Remote ID and U-space sandbox capabilities, and communications infrastructure such as LTE bonding, satcom and IP mesh. These assets allow specific-category testing to be set up in less than one month and enable structured validation campaigns in a controlled environment.
Regulatory Assistance
BDC’s value is not only infrastructure but in its regulatory maturity. Its owner, CATUAV, received Spain’s first UAS Light Operator Certificate (LUC) from Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea (AESA) in February 2024. This gives it a particularly strong position within the European compliance landscape. (See prior AG coverage of LUC).
Certification Guidance
BDC also offers an end-to-end certification process for manufacturers, including roadmap definition, pre-evaluation support and evaluation testing. That combination of flight-test capability, compliance support and operational know-how provides precisely what is needed to turn abstract regulatory requirements into measurable, auditable evidence.
Commercial Launchpad
The commercial opportunity is therefore immediate. On the European side, SORA 2.5 is intended to simplify and harmonize approvals in the specific category. On the U.S. side, Part 108 is being shaped to enable more routine BVLOS use cases, including package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, civic interest missions, training, demonstrations, and flight testing, while leaning more heavily on consensus standards, testing data, and operator responsibility. As these frameworks mature, demand will grow for neutral, high-credibility environments where manufacturers and operators can prove compliance before entering the market at scale.
The Framework for Success
In this context, the winning proposition is not simply “testing” or “certification” in isolation. It is about the creation of a common safety evidence framework, backed by robust infrastructure and operational expertise, that anticipates the needs of both EASA and FAA pathways.
Testing is no longer only a technical milestone. It is becoming a commercial enabler. And certification is no longer a final step. It is quickly becoming part of product strategy from day one.
BCD’s experience suggests that such a model is already feasible: build once to the highest practical standard, validate in a controlled and regulation-ready environment and use that evidence to unlock civil and commercial UAS operations across jurisdictions. BDC is positioned not just as a place to fly drones, but as a platform to generate credible, regulator-ready evidence. And that matters now more than ever.