After three months of working together, the Unmanned Aviation Services division of United Kingdom-based Resource Group and MAT Kosovo—which is part of the PCM Group, and specializes in international mine action standards training—organized a week-long flight school in Kosovo that focused on UAS use within the “specific requirements of the Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) field.”

During the flight training course, which started on September 16, operational users, system developers and academics received training from Resource Group, which allowed them to learn and share their current experiences.

This “bespoke training” meets the requirements of the Remote Pilot Qualifications (RPQ-s)—Resource Group’s Civil Aviation Authority approved UAS qualification—while “ensuring relevance through its focus on the very specific requirements in the exceptionally challenging ERW arena.”

Resource Group is the only flight training partner of MAT Kosovo, so they provided the UAS, course materials and an evaluation towards the RPQ-s certification, which gave all attendees the chance to gain a formal qualification.

The training focused on the safe and legal handling of UAS, and applied real-world ERW experiences and scenarios to prepare students for the challenges presented in the ERW environment.

“We’re delighted to have a productive partnership with MAT Kosovo and the PCM Group,” says Mark Jones, Head of Unmanned Aviation Services for Resource Group.

“As the partner of choice for this important and cutting-edge application of drone technology, we feel that the integration of drones into this well-established field will add yet another tool to the armory in the fight against explosive remnants of war.”