LAWTON – With the help of a state grant, the FISTA Innovation Park will host a course designed to teach people what to do when drones enter their airspace and create a potential threat.
The FISTA Development Trust Authority, which oversees the Innovation Park in Central Plaza, voted unanimously April 2 to accept a $500,000 Oklahoma Strategic Military Planning Commission grant and incur expenses before the grant is fully funded. The grant money will help fund FISTA’s Counter UAS (Counter- Unmanned Aircraft System) Academy, which will begin this summer.
Funding from other sources will cover the remaining cost of the course, estimated at $1 million.
The course will focus on training civilians, businesses and academic institutions about responding to possible threats posed by drones, said FISTA President and CEO Dr. Krista Ratliff.
“We’re training people on the devices to counteract those drones and how to shut them down from a security standpoint and send them back to their maker, their originator, without causing any risk to the community,” she said.
A Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System is a system or device that can disable an unmanned aircraft safely and legally.
Creating the Counter UAS Academy at the FISTA Innovation Park offers an opportunity to solidify Fort Sill’s role in national defense and future combat preparedness, FISTA officials said in their grant application.
“This initiative would not only enhance the community’s capabilities in countering emerging aerial threats but also demonstrate its ongoing commitment to adopting and advancing cutting-edge defense technologies,” they said.
A short timeline Ratliff told the FISTA board that it will take time for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to advance funding for the grant, but FISTA has to start incurring expenses against the grant because the first Counter UAS Academy class is scheduled for August. She said that means FISTA needs to start preparations for the academy this month.
“In order for that short turnaround time, we need to onboard staff, our recruiters,” Ratliff said. “Get the advertising word out there, start building a curriculum.”
The board also heard from Toney Stricklin, president of the private consulting firm TRDS, who is involved in the academy.
Stricklin said he is designing the curriculum for the academy and thinking about ways to advertise it.
“I’m excited about it,” he said. “It’s going to be a fantastic course, and I’m just hopeful that people are able to recognize the same thing.”