Averium Dynamics Deutsch

Field Note: Munitions-contaminated land

Five points before a drone flies over munitions-contaminated land

Five questions, three answers each. At the end you see how many points are settled for your deployment and which are still open. It takes about two minutes.

1Is the aircraft meant to release anything over the area, such as extinguishing agent or another load? Or is it only meant to fly and reconnoitre?

Operating category · Basis: Regulation (EU) 2019/947

2Is it settled who flies? The fire service itself, or a company on its behalf?

Who flies · Basis: § 21k LuftVO, EGRED 2, STS-BOS

3Is it settled how the drone coordinates with helicopters and air tankers over the incident?

Airspace · Basis: DFV and AGBF, Fachempfehlung Drohnen und UAV, August 2025

Questions 4 and 5 do not apply: if the aircraft only flies and reconnoitres, nothing is dropped.

4Is it settled whether the extinguishing agent may be placed on the market in Germany, and whether a permit under § 7 SprengG is needed?

Extinguishing agent · Basis: ProdSG, § 7 SprengG, 1. SprengV

5Is there an answer to what happens to a payload that does not go off, on ground nobody may enter?

Failed drop · Basis: deployment planning

Prefer paper: the five points as a PDF

A1, A2, A3 and the ban on dropping

A1, A2 and A3 are subcategories of the open category. They turn on distance to people and on the class of the aircraft. Across the whole open category: maximum take-off mass under 25 kg, flight within visual line of sight (VLOS), and no more than 120 m above the closest point of the Earth's surface, except when flying over an obstacle.

  • A1: never over assemblies of people. With a class C0 aircraft or a privately built one under 250 g, uninvolved people may be overflown; with class C1 the remote pilot must be able to expect that this will not happen.
  • A2: class C2. No flying over uninvolved people, at least 30 m horizontal distance from them, at least 5 m in low-speed mode. The remote pilot needs a remote pilot certificate.
  • A3: classes C2, C3, C4, or privately built under 25 kg. No uninvolved person may be endangered, and at least 150 m from residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas.

The ban on dropping material sits in Article 4 of the regulation, together with the ban on carrying dangerous goods. It applies to the whole open category. Which subcategory you fly in does not change it.

An operation that does not meet a condition of the open category is in the specific category and needs an operational authorisation under Articles 5 and 12. That is where § 21k LuftVO comes in: it exempts the operation of drones under 25 kg by or under the supervision of public safety authorities (BOS) from that authorisation requirement.

Other systems

What the systems do, how they reach the fire and what stage they are at, according to the sources named. The table scrolls sideways.

SystemWhat it doesHow it reaches the fireStage
Korean Air with Anduril Industries Software combines sensor data into one operating picture and alerts when a fire starts. Uncrewed aircraft assess the fire; suppression by rapid-response uncrewed aircraft or by crewed air tankers. The companies have been exploring joint development since October 2025 (UAS Weekly, 2 Oct 2025).
XCMG with the Shanghai office of the Ministry of Emergency Management Vehicle-mounted system with two fire-rescue drones and one reconnaissance drone, for early-stage fires in high-rise buildings, forests and grassland. The reconnaissance drone goes first and plots a route; the fire-rescue drones follow. They carry dry-powder extinguishing bombs or pressurised tanks. Shown at an expo in Beijing in October 2023 as the fifth product generation. According to staff, deployed in forest fire prevention, on re-ignition points and in inaccessible terrain (SCMP, 19 Oct 2023).
Averium Dynamics Automatic fire detection on board, drop of an extinguishing ball. Uncrewed aircraft. Own controlled test, prototype.
Vertical onboard view of grey ground. A yellow detection box labelled “FIRE 69%” surrounds a small fire in a triangular metal frame. Top right, a red and yellow spherical extinguishing ball hangs into the frame.
Onboard view from one of our own controlled tests. Automatic fire detection marks the seat of the fire, here with 69 per cent confidence. A prototype.

Sources. The five points and their legal basis come from the Field Note A fire no fire service may enter, where every source is listed. On A1, A2 and A3:

  • Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, Articles 4, 5 and 12 and Annex Part A (UAS.OPEN.010 to .040), consolidated version of 1 May 2025. eur-lex.europa.eu
  • Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, Einordnung des UAS-Betriebes nach aktuellem Recht (in German). lba.de
  • § 21k LuftVO (in German). gesetze-im-internet.de

For the table of other systems:

  • Korean Air and Anduril Industries, joint announcement of 2 October 2025, via UAS Weekly. uasweekly.com
  • South China Morning Post, Zhang Tong, 19 October 2023. The XCMG system: what it consists of, how it operates, the partner and its stage, as stated by XCMG at the expo. scmp.com

Disclosure: Averium Dynamics develops firefighting drones. The five points apply to us as they do to any other supplier.