Designing C2 Links for BVLOS UAS Operations

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen a significant growth in civilian space over the past decade. The number one ranked challenge in UAS operations in Europe is regulatory obstacles such as the Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) for 2023–2025. Existing approaches have focused on individual technical solutions (radio technologies, redundancy schemes, or cryptographic protections) or on high-level safety analysis, but have not integrated regulatory compliance, risk assessment, and repeatable systems models that directly support SORA artifact generation and rapid adaptation across BVLOS operational contexts. Thus, the current state-of-the-art apparatus lacks a systematic Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach that can cater to Command and Control (C2) data-link design for Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) missions. In this work, we propose an MBSE methodology designed to assist engineers in designing a C2 data link for BVLOS drone operations that complies with SORA regulations in the Netherlands and Europe. To validate the use of MBSE in a wide range of complex drone operations, we demonstrate how subtle modifications in the proposed engineering models can be made without any major overhaul of new SORA applications, and this is validate these changes through laboratory software tests and simulations.