Drones – Painting the Skies Green! (A Case Study of the European Union)

This paper explores the primary drivers of today’s, and thus tomorrow’s, European Union transport strategy and policy aims from the perspective of aviation sustainability goals, with specific focus on the unmanned aircraft market. This includes, principally, the synergy to the “Green Deal” and its “Innovative Aviation Mobility” approach, which emphasizes the value of drones, while linkage to technological/digital advancements is more loosely factored in. The EU’s ambition to lead on “greening transport” and the connection to the international dimension, in the form of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, are also discussed. The paper considers the overlaps of strategies and whether the legacy use of drones in warfare can lead to “painting the skies green.” In addition, the paper encompasses a review of key strategic developments. It considers the historical roots of the EU and the need to restructure the region, both physically and politically, in the aftermath of the Second World War. It explores the symbiotic relationship of transport, particularly aviation, to the EU, both as an enabling and dis-enabling mechanism. This includes a review of the need to separate the “red” use of drones (the negative) into a “greener” approach (the good) to unmanned aircraft. The research concludes that a number of challenges remain across the civil, security, and defense domains and that there may be difficulties in separating out the use of drones for peaceful purposes.