The FAA has authorized Skyways to conduct autonomous flights beyond U.S. territorial waters, opening a new pathway for offshore drone operations as federal agencies formalize how they coordinate counter-UAS testing and deployment. FAA Acting Deputy Administrator Liam McKenna announced the developments at AUVSI’s Drone and AAM Policy Symposium, where the association also introduced Brett Feddersen as its next president and CEO.
The breaking announcements paired operational approvals with a broader push to accelerate aviation innovation. McKenna highlighted two recently selected FAA drone test sites, counter-UAS testing opportunities and early work on type certification reform. A subsequent FAA and NASA panel detailed organizational changes, operational drone traffic management and research aimed at keeping aerial wildfire response running through darkness and smoke.
What officials did not deliver: firm publication dates or substantive new decisions on the beyond visual line of sight rule, Part 149 or Section 2209. The message on pending drone rulemaking remained that action would come soon.
AUVSI Names New President and CEO
AUVSI introduced Brett Feddersen as its incoming president and CEO effective December 1st. As drone integration and airspace security increasingly converge, Feddersen’s selection makes sense. He brings experience as a state trooper, Army aviator and intelligence officer, White House transportation and border security director, and FAA executive director for national security programs. He most recently served as vice president of strategy and governmental affairs at D-Fend Solutions.
His opening remarks emphasized a broader mandate than counter-UAS alone, spanning autonomy, robotics, artificial intelligence and advanced air mobility.
“I am one of you,” Feddersen told attendees. “I have grown up in the community.”
He pledged to press for regulatory clarity and timelines that help companies move technology into operational use. He also asked members to supply evidence about market barriers and unintended policy consequences.
“What I need from the community is your data, your information, conversations about what you’re seeing that’s impeding you in the marketplace,” he said.
FAA Approves The First Autonomous Drone Flights Over the High Seas
McKenna said the FAA authorized Skyways to fly its autonomous E2 aircraft from Shell’s shore facility to offshore platforms, including operations beyond the 12-mile territorial boundary. He described the approval as the agency’s first authorization of autonomous flights beyond U.S. territorial waters. “This is a really big deal because these customarily have been manned aircraft operations,” McKenna noted.
The approval creates an operational pathway for missions that could otherwise expose pilots and crews to hazardous offshore conditions. McKenna pointed to inspections following hurricanes, when operators need to assess platforms or pipelines while weather conditions may remain difficult. He also identified critical supply delivery and potential future search-and-rescue applications as opportunities for uncrewed aircraft. “We don’t want to have to send manned aircraft out there if we don’t have to,” he said.
McKenna said the FAA is working with the International Civil Aviation Organization to support broader international implementation. He characterized the authorization as a first internationally, while qualifying that claim with “I believe.” The immediate announcement concerned Skyways’ approved operation, not blanket permission for other operators to begin high-seas flights.
Interagency Counter-UAS Agreement Aligns Federal Testing and Deployment
McKenna also announced an interagency memorandum of understanding (MOU) to coordinate the evaluation and deployment of counter-UAS systems throughout the national airspace system. He identified the participating departments as War, Justice, Energy, Homeland Security and Transportation, including the FAA.
The agreement seeks to reconcile two demands that increasingly intersect: stopping dangerous drones and ensuring that counter-drone systems do not create new hazards for legitimate aviation.
McKenna said the framework would support a “unified, adaptive and nimble response” while preserving airspace safety. He emphasized the FAA’s role in evaluating systems before security agencies deploy them. That safety assessment extends beyond the targeted drone. The FAA needs to understand a counter-UAS system’s capabilities, limitations and potential effects on other aircraft and nearby transportation, McKenna said.
For manufacturers, his message was to bring the technology to the agency before customers need to field it. “Test your equipment with us,” he said. Early familiarity, he added, can help the FAA reach faster decisions about whether a system can operate safely.
Choctaw Nation and Indiana Expand FAA Drone Test Network
McKenna highlighted the recent selection of Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma and Indiana as new FAA UAS test sites, describing them as the first additions in nearly a decade. The sites will support advanced drone operations, including BVLOS testing, and generate data to inform future rules and guidance.
He also identified both locations as sites for counter-UAS testing. The distinction matters because controlled testing gives developers and federal partners a place to evaluate technology before operational deployment. McKenna presented the sites as a route to better safety evidence, not as unrestricted authority to deploy counter-UAS capabilities elsewhere
During the FAA and NASA panel, FAA official Jessica Jones reinforced that invitation. She said the agency wants developers to involve the FAA and use its test sites rather than conduct disconnected evaluations that leave government partners without a shared understanding of the results. “I’ve learned quickly that the sharing of information has not been what it should be because everyone’s testing in their own little pockets,” Jones said.
FAA Type Certification Reform Targets Innovation Delays
McKenna said the administration has begun examining changes to aircraft type certification, arguing that lengthy approval processes can push innovation outside the United States and delay technologies that improve safety. “It can’t be the case of safety and it can’t be the case of innovation that we have a process that takes this long that is this cumbersome,” McKenna explained.
The effort remains in its early stages. He described recent engagements with aircraft manufacturers. He invited industry feedback, particularly on eVTOL aircraft and other emerging aviation technologies. He also outlined broader rulemaking reforms under consideration, including shorter rules, faster movement from concept to publication, artificial intelligence support for research and comment review, and more transparency between proposed and final rules. He did not announce a completed reform package or implementation timetable.
FAA Reorganization and NASA UTM Research Focus on Scale
The FAA and NASA panel shifted attention from individual approvals to the infrastructure and research needed for larger-scale operations.
Jones described the FAA’s Office of Advanced Aviation Technologies as a focal point for emerging aviation, with work spanning AAM integration, UAS, research, test sites and counter-UAS. The organization has changed, she said, but its mission still centers on safe, secure integration.
She pointed to UAS Traffic Management, or UTM, as evidence that integration already operates beyond the research stage. Since January, Jones said, 2.2 million flights had undergone strategic deconfliction. “UTM is here and it’s now,” she said.
NASA’s Parimal “PK” Kopardekar described the next challenge as enabling scale through cooperative airspace operations. He highlighted wildfire research that applies UTM experience to portable airspace management, allowing responders to plan, monitor and deconflict drone trajectories when smoke or darkness limits conventional aerial operations.
“How can we expand the capacity of aerial monitoring and mitigation 24 hours a day?” he asked. Kopardekar said NASA plans to move that technology toward broader use by states and industry, while continuing research on AAM operations and safety assurance for increasingly autonomous systems. The goal is not simply more aircraft in the air, but coordinated operations that remain useful when responders face their toughest conditions.
Drone Integration’s Next Test: Turning Policy Into Operations
The symposium’s opening salvo put the next phase of drone integration in focus: turning individual approvals, expanded testing capacity and interagency coordination into repeatable operations. For industry, that means bringing aircraft, counter-UAS systems and operational data to the FAA early. For federal agencies, it means translating that evidence into clearer requirements and more efficient approvals. Feddersen captured the shared objective: “enable companies and enable operators to get the very best technology off the plans and out into the field.”