SGAUS Launches Standardized Drone Program with FAA Certification

In Part 3 of our Commanders Briefing podcast with Lt. Colonel (MD) Barry Greene, President of The State Guard Association of The United States, we discuss the launch of a new national nitiative: the SGAUS standardized Drone Program. Developed in collaboration with the FAA, this program provides State Defense Force members with comprehensive training and certification to meet federal standards for drone operation. Soldiers who successfully complete the course will earn the SGAUS Drone badge, signifying their qualification as Federally certified drone operators. The conversation explores the program’s structure and the role drone missions play in modern State Defense Force missions.

For the full episode visit: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sgaus-speaks-out-121207347?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is made possible by Dustin Colgrove, Colonel Ben Perry,
Colonel c McAdams, Senior Colonel Philip Smith, and other Patreon members.
Support us at patreon dot com. Forward slash State Defense Force.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now the next one I'm going to get probably another
big smile from you, ready for this drone two levels. Again,
not all states have drone programs, but several states already do.
They're already aggressively in use. Of course, they are massively
integrated with their search and rescue programs because that's primarily

(00:36):
what state defense forces are being asked to bring drones
out to do. We have developed a drone program, and
believe it or not, we have developed it with the
concurrence of the FAA. So the bottom line is everything
that we're doing is locked with federal underpinnings. So that
any tag that sees anybody wearing a Saugas badge, you

(00:58):
are looking at an individual that met federal requirements for
that specific specialty. Doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to
do that in your state, but they're now qualified to
do it. So the drone pilot, we're actually creating two
levels right now, Drone crew and drone pilot. The drone
pilot will be wings, the drone crew will be a

(01:19):
different type of badge. But the bottom line being because
there's two separate specialties. Because as I learned more and
more from the people that are smarter than I am
about drones, you really it's not just one person showing
up with a drone. There's a crew that operates them
and does specific categories of maintenance and operations to keep

(01:40):
a drone program on mission. So that's all part of it.