OKLAHOMA CITY (OBV) — Federal transportation officials have designated the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation as the two newest FAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Test Sites, expanding the national network to nine locations and marking the program’s first additions in almost ten years.
The UAS Test Site program provides controlled environments to develop, test, and evaluate public and civil drone technologies, generating data that informs safe integration into the National Airspace System. With the new designations, the network adds geographic diversity alongside existing sites in Alaska, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Texas, and Virginia.
The expansion aligns with ongoing federal work to enable Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations. In August 2025 the FAA published a proposed rule to normalize low‑altitude BVLOS and supporting services such as UAS Traffic Management, and Congress authorized up to two new test ranges in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.
“From delivering lifesaving medicine to surveying pipelines, drones are already reshaping industries and changing how people and products interact. It’s our job to make sure the United States safely leads the way with this exciting technology — not China. We’ve added these new test sites to help us gather critical data and test new systems so we can safely unleash innovation in our skies,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy.
In Oklahoma, the Choctaw Nation’s Emerging Aviation Technology Center is building out a one‑of‑a‑kind test facility over more than 44,600 acres of tribally owned land in southeastern Oklahoma, positioning the state to validate BVLOS concepts and advanced air mobility systems under an FAA‑approved framework.
