What We Do at ARPAS-UK

Our Objective and 3 Priorities (cf Annual meeting, April 2024)

To know us a little bit better, watch the following video:

And to know us even more, read more in detail :

ARPAS-UK is a  Non-Profit Trade Association, we are the Collective Voice for the UK drone Industry.

The Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems UK ARPAS-UK objective is to collectively achieve the benefits of using drones for the UK economy and wider society.

Drones are a professional tool to capture images and data safely, and soon to perform actions such as spraying or transporting goods and people.

  • They help teams perform their dull, dangerous, dirty operations in a safer, smarter, cheaper, efficient way.
  • The quality of the images and the digital output is constantly improving, drones are part of the digital transformation.
  • Most drones have electric propulsion, they are part of the CO2-reduction journey.

“Drone” has become a generic word that is well understood by the general public, and that is the term we use most of the time, together with RPAS of course (remotely piloted aircraft system), or UAS (Uncrewed Aircraft System), or advanced aerial systems. Whatever the terminology, our vision of drones encompasses innovative aircrafts and related systems used for Aerial Operations (inspection, mapping, videography, surveillance…) up to and including Air Mobility.  

ARPAS-UK was founded in 2013. It has since expanded its reach across the drone ecosystem with 3700 followers on LinkedIn, 5500 on Twitter. It has also expanded its sphere of influence and contributes to  ~ 30 key UK industry committees.

Our philosophy:

ARPAS-UK strives to work in the general public interest. We engage with a broad range of stakeholders with a fair and balanced approach, we foster a collaborative approach across the ecosystem. We advocate respect, inclusiveness and politeness in exchanges, and request professionalism within its membership through compliance with an agreed Code of Conduct.

ARPAS-UK Priorities:

We engage with key stakeholders, other airspace users, local authorities, police forces to facilitate the acceptance of drones and to deliver on our 3 goals:

  • We advocate proportionate regulations and standards that define business now and over the next 3 years.  “Proportionate Regulations and Standards”
  • We promote the safe adoption of drones by end-user industries. We support utmost professionalism and skills development to delight end-users customers and drive business for members. “Safe and Professional Adoption of drones by end-Users”
  • We address future-facing challenges, we strive to push the boundaries for industry growth beyond 2025, and act as a central conduit in the ecosystem for intelligence on technologies, technical requirements, competencies, striving to inform future regulations. “Conduit for future-facing issues”.

Representation of the RPAS community in Key Government and Industry Committees

Since its inception ARPAS-UK has grown to represent a broad spectrum of members across the industry. Through the hard work of our committee we have developed safety partnerships with the CAA and NATS. We also have working relationships with key stakeholders including BMFA, BALPA, KTN, ACPO, RAeS, and many others, where we actively champion greater co-operation with the membership.

And as a membership organisation, we support our members: we organise professional webinars and CPD sessions, we co-host booth at trade shows and organise speaker slots, we share members’ success stories on our social media, we offer discounts on hardware, software, insurance, training, and other services. We further support professionalism in the industry by sharing job recruitment adverts.

The Association is run by the members, for the members with no conflicting commercial interests.

ARPAS-UK is the only non-commercial professional body, solely representing the drone community in the UK. All income is used to further the interests of the membership and to ensure that the industry remains fair, safe and open.

As well as promoting best practice, the Association also encourages a culture of collaboration and information sharing so that members are better informed and better prepared to make the most from market opportunities. Promoting our members and the standards we set, enables end users to easily identify the best and most appropriate operators to hire for their specific needs.

ARPAS-UK – Code of Conduct

The emergence of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) as a resource for a wide variety of public and private applications quite possibly represents one of the most significant advancements to aviation, the scientific community, and public service since the beginning of flight.