USA: Michigan Launches Near-Border Drone Operations Hub with ANRA Technologies

A new pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship has launched in Michigan’s East­ern Upper Penin­su­la to advance drone-based mobil­i­ty solu­tions and air­space man­age­ment.

Led by ANRA Tech­nolo­gies, the project will estab­lish a region­al Oper­a­tions Cen­ter in Chippe­wa Coun­ty, enabling near-bor­der com­mer­cial and secu­ri­ty drone oper­a­tions through real-time sit­u­a­tion­al aware­ness and FAA-autho­rized traf­fic coor­di­na­tion ser­vices.

The col­lab­o­ra­tion aims to posi­tion Chippe­wa as a strate­gic test­bed for scal­able pri­vate and pub­lic Uncrewed Air­craft Sys­tem (UAS) deploy­ment across Michi­gan.

Jus­tine John­son, Michi­gan Chief Mobil­i­ty Offi­cer at the Michi­gan Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion, said: “This project exem­pli­fies Michigan’s com­mit­ment to lead­ing the future of advanced air mobil­i­ty by build­ing the foun­da­tion for a scal­able drone ecosys­tem for the Upper Penin­su­la.

“Through pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships such as this, we are ignit­ing a cat­a­lyst for inno­va­tion that will dri­ve long-term growth in a trans­for­ma­tive sector—benefiting both pub­lic ser­vices and pri­vate enter­prise alike.”

Chippe­wa County’s loca­tion, bor­der­ing Cana­da and near inter­na­tion­al water­ways like the St. Marys Riv­er, makes it an ide­al launch point for near-bor­der drone oper­a­tions. Its strate­gic set­ting sup­ports real-world test­ing for cross-bor­der coor­di­na­tion, reg­u­la­to­ry align­ment, and scal­able appli­ca­tions in trade, secu­ri­ty, and infra­struc­ture mon­i­tor­ing. 

The deploy­ment will inte­grate ANRA’s FAA-autho­rized air­space man­age­ment plat­form with Cen­sys Tech­nolo­gies’ long-endurance UAS, cre­at­ing a uni­fied oper­a­tional pic­ture to sup­port mis­sions such as emer­gency response, infra­struc­ture inspec­tion, and logis­tics.

Cen­sys brings deep exper­tise as a nation­al leader in secur­ing reg­u­la­to­ry approvals for advanced drone oper­a­tions, mak­ing them an ide­al part­ner for demon­strat­ing how BVLOS flights can be safe­ly and com­pli­ant­ly scaled in real-world envi­ron­ments.

Amit Gan­joo, Founder and CEO of ANRA Tech­nolo­gies, said: “At ANRA, we’re com­mit­ted to build­ing the dig­i­tal infra­struc­ture need­ed to safe­ly scale drone oper­a­tions across the coun­try. This project in Chippe­wa Coun­ty is not just about deploy­ing tech­nol­o­gy, it’s about demon­strat­ing how pub­lic-pri­vate col­lab­o­ra­tion can unlock real val­ue for com­mu­ni­ties through smarter, more secure air­space man­age­ment.”

In addi­tion to con­duct­ing drone oper­a­tions, Michi­gan Tech Research Insti­tute (MTRI) will lead data ana­lyt­ics and per­for­mance eval­u­a­tion activ­i­ties, lever­ag­ing local test­ing infra­struc­ture and decades of research excel­lence in auton­o­my and remote sens­ing.

Dr. Col­in Brooks, Trans­porta­tion Pro­gram Area Man­ag­er at MTRI, added: “MTRI is excit­ed to con­tribute our tech­ni­cal exper­tise, both in the field and in the lab to ensure that project out­comes are mea­sur­able, scal­able, and sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly sound. We see this as a prov­ing ground for both pol­i­cy and tech­nol­o­gy.”

Michi­gan is jump­start­ing its advanced air mobil­i­ty econ­o­my by build­ing the infra­struc­ture and part­ner­ships need­ed for safe, scal­able UAS oper­a­tions.

In July of 2025, Gov­er­nor Gretchen Whit­mer signed an Exec­u­tive Direc­tive 2025–4 Estab­lish­ing the Michi­gan Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty Ini­tia­tive and through pro­grams like MMFP, the state is lay­ing a foun­da­tion for growth in advanced air mobil­i­ty, attract­ing invest­ment, and expand­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in com­mer­cial, pub­lic safe­ty, and logis­tics sec­tors.

The project’s ini­tial phase will begin in July 2025 with part­ner align­ment, table­top exer­cis­es, and sim­u­la­tion activ­i­ties. Live flights and real-world mis­sions will fol­low in 2026, with final results expect­ed by Q3 2026.