Drone range opens in Orange County

ORANGE COUNTY, Va. (WVIR) - People from all over came out to Orange County Monday, August 14, for the grand opening of a drone range.

“Drones really are the wave of the future, and we want to be ahead of that,” Steven King with the MITRE Corporation said. ”It’s exciting that we can be ahead of that here in Orange County.”

King says people with stakes in drone technology across the field will be testing their drones at this facility.

“Un-crewed, aerial surveillance (UAS) technology has such an important value to our first responders, to the intelligence community, to precision agriculture technologies,” 7th District Representative Abigail Spanberger, the key-note speaker at Mondays ribbon cutting, said.

“We just gotten a grant from the federal government and we’re purchasing six drones, and the uses for them will be for search and rescue,” Sheriff Mark Amos said.

Drones are being tested for delivering packages, as well as racing.

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