Next year a public consultation in the UK on remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), known as drones, for civil and military applications will take place.

The consultation is part of a multi-government department project for a UK RPAS strategy to help build a domestic industry. No date for the strategy’s completion has been set.

In a 1 December RPAS hearing of the European Union committee of the UK’s House of Lords, the government’s under secretary of state for transport, Robert Goodwill MP, explained that the UK is supporting RPAS technologies and industry with about £30 million ($46.9 million) so far.

DHL has been testing a drone delivery system in Germany, Amazon has proposed a quadcopter type cargo RPAS and the UK company 4×4 Aviation is developing an unmanned freighter at its base at London Ashford Airport.