Ondas Opens New Unmanned Aircraft Training and Test Facility in Ohio

Ondas has opened a new train­ing, test­ing and flight oper­a­tions facil­i­ty at the Nation­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Cen­ter of Excel­lence (NAAMCE) in Spring­field, Ohio, estab­lish­ing a Mid­west hub for its autonomous unmanned air­craft activ­i­ties.

The facil­i­ty, for­mal­ly opened on August 18, will be oper­at­ed by Ondas Sen­tinel, the company’s divi­sion focused on autonomous defense tech­nolo­gies. The divi­sion includes teams and tech­nolo­gies from DZYNE Tech­nolo­gies, which Ondas acquired in July.

The site brings ground train­ing, sim­u­la­tion, mis­sion plan­ning and live flight oper­a­tions togeth­er in a sin­gle facil­i­ty. It will sup­port oper­a­tor train­ing and mis­sion oper­a­tions for the ULTRA long-endurance unmanned air­craft and Stra­tol­lite stratos­pher­ic flight plat­form.

The loca­tion at Spring­field-Beck­ley Air­port also places Ondas Sen­tinel close to sev­er­al US aero­space and defense orga­ni­za­tions. The facil­i­ty is near Wright-Pat­ter­son Air Force Base, the Air Force Research Lab­o­ra­to­ry (AFRL) and the Air Force Life Cycle Man­age­ment Cen­ter, while the 178th Air Nation­al Guard is locat­ed near­by.

Te rib­bon-cut­ting marked the offi­cial open­ing. Matt McCue, Chief Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer, Ondas Sen­tinel, and Ted Angel, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, NAAMCE, were joined by fed­er­al, state, and local elect­ed offi­cials, mil­i­tary lead­er­ship, and region­al aero­space indus­try and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment part­ners.

McCuel said the facil­i­ty would pro­vide an inte­grat­ed envi­ron­ment for oper­a­tor devel­op­ment, test­ing, demon­stra­tions and cus­tomer engage­ment.

“Our pres­ence here at NAAMCE gives us some­thing few oth­ers can match: one inte­grat­ed envi­ron­ment for train­ing, test­ing, oper­a­tor devel­op­ment, demon­stra­tion, and cus­tomer engage­ment. Ground school, sim­u­la­tion, mis­sion plan­ning, and live flight oper­a­tions all hap­pen in one place, in one pipeline. That accel­er­ates train­ing, it strength­ens oper­a­tional readi­ness, and it lets our part­ners see first­hand what low-cost long-endurance unmanned air­craft deliv­er.”

“Spring­field is the right place for the mis­sions we sup­port. The con­di­tions here mir­ror what long-endurance home­land secu­ri­ty and defense mis­sions demand. Being min­utes from Wright-Pat­ter­son keeps us shoul­der to shoul­der with AFRL, the Air Force Life Cycle Man­age­ment Cen­ter, and the Air Force orga­ni­za­tions shap­ing what comes next. These are not arm’s length rela­tion­ships.”

“ULTRA is the clear­est exam­ple of cost-effec­tive inno­va­tion. It start­ed as a rapid AFRL pro­gram. The Air Force invest­ed ear­ly and took the risk on the con­cept. That invest­ment is why this air­craft exists and is mov­ing for­ward to poten­tial pro­duc­tion. That is a direct return.”

“This rib­bon cut­ting is not the end of a project, it’s the start of a capa­bil­i­ty. And we’re just get­ting start­ed.”

Thomas Sleightholm

Thomas is a con­tent writer for eVTOL Insights, cov­er­ing all aspects of the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty ecosys­tem. Got a sto­ry for him? Please send an email to editorial@evtolinsights.com

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