By Spring 2019, Greenville, South Carolina’s Police Department will have UAS technology as part of its operations. According to Police Chief Ken Miller, the department can invest in the technology thanks to receiving a federal grant. “Our intentional use is to purchase some sort of unmanned aircraft systems,” Miller says via WSPA-TV. UAS have been used in the state to survey the flooding caused by Hurricane Florence. Miller says that there is no shortage of ways to utilize this technology.   “There are many departments in the city that have interest in this technology,” Miller says.

Autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica has announced the completion of a £14 million (more than $18.5 million USD) investment, which will be used to support the “next stage of its growth strategy,” the company says. According to Oxbotica, the investment will be used to further accelerate its sustained growth, which has already seen it generate “significant” revenues, the company says, from an international customer base. Some of the company’s customers include well-known businesses in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, construction, logistics and mining.

Impossible Aerospace, a company that is building long-range electric aircraft, has raised $9.4 million in a Series A funding round, bringing the total amount raised by the company thus far to more than $11 million.  In addition to this funding, Impossible Aerospace has also unveiled its US-1 UAS, which is an electric commercial-grade drone with a flight time of up to two hours. According to Impossible Aerospace, the US-1’s battery life outperforms the approximate single-charge flight time of other UAS available today—25 minutes—and “brings it to parity with gasoline-fueled systems,” the company says.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding the County of Cape May, New Jersey a $3 million grant to help build a 20,000 square foot multi-tenant building. The facility, which will be located within the Cape May County Airport, will help fulfill the needs of companies in the UAS industry. “Building the new ‘tech village’ right at Cape May County Airport will not only immediately create good-paying jobs, the final training facility will empower entrepreneurs and businesses in the fast-growing field of unmanned aerial vehicles,” says New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez.