• Michigan is spending over $42 million on drone development
  • Organizations in both the public and private sectors are testing how to incorporate drones into operations
  • Other states, like Ohio and Indiana, are also beginning to invest in drone technology

Michigan is playing catch-up in the national race to secure a share of the multi-billion-dollar US drone industry, but backers say the state’s manufacturing and engineering heritage may help it close the gap.

Michigan has set aside over $42 million through its Advanced Air Mobility Initiative to support drone manufacturing, testing and rollout in the state. 

That’s so far helped launch drone projects in everything from health care to Great Lakes shipping. And the US Department of Defense designated Camp Grayling and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center Michigan’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center, with more than 17,000 square miles of military airspace and 60 miles of airspace where drones can fly farther than a pilot can see it, something federal rules usually forbid.

But Ohio has spent more than $61 million on 35 drone initiatives of its own and received $10 million from the federal government for its National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence. And Indiana was in January selected by the Trump administration as one of two new national drone test sites and that state’s Midwest UAS Test Site has more than 200 miles of dedicated airspace in which pilots can fly drones farther than they can see them, more than twice as much airspace as Michigan. 

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The stakes are high. The drone industry is projected to generate $115 billion annually by 2035 and create more than 280,000 jobs, according to a report from Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification. 

While Michigan doesn’t have the highest drone production or the largest testing grounds, business leaders say Michigan’s automotive industry — and its history of innovative manufacturing and engineering —  sets it apart from other states.

“Because of the automotive industry here, you can become a very powerful player in that national ecosystem, and that’s what’s happening,” said Richard Fahle, vice president of marketing for Airspace Link, a Detroit-based company that created an app for drone users flying in crowded airspace.

And drones are finding a foothold here.

Blueflite, a drone manufacturing company based in Brighton, received $1.6 million in state grants to pilot a program with Munson Healthcare, one of the largest health care systems in northern Michigan, to deliver medical samples via drone. While currently an Elk Rapids resident might have to drive 40 minutes to Traverse City for a blood draw, the patient could visit an Elk Rapids clinic and “the drone would be able to pick it up at our facility, bring it to our central laboratory, and drop it off for processing in about 12 to 15 minutes,” said Munson Vice President of Supply Chain Tracy Cleveland. 

Blueflite is also working on a $740,000 program with Jack Demmer Ford dealerships to deliver smaller car parts from one location to another. 

Those delivery drones are designed, manufactured, tested and piloted in the state, and materials come from businesses in Wixcom and Adrian, according to co-founder James McClearen.

Other examples of drone programs in Michigan include:

Meanwhile, state Rep. William Bruck, R-Erie, helped create a 14-bill package called the SHIELD Michigan, which outlines certain regulations for manufacturing and infrastructure for drone usage by public entities. Two bills from the package recently passed through the state House.

“It’s a budding industry here in Michigan and we want to have a clear, concise mobility corridor established throughout our state,” Bruck said. “I think that will give us a lot of capability for expansion because we’re doing things that other states are not doing in this arena, and manufacturing will follow.”

Drone school

Kevin Campbell, the director of Central Michigan University’s Drone Lab, said that, as drones are utilized more in the workforce, more employment opportunities will follow. His program at CMU allows students from any of the university’s colleges to earn a drone pilot license and specialized certifications in their area of interest.

“(CMU) has graduates that work in real estate, we have graduates that work in production, we have graduates that work in parks and rec, engineering,” he said. 

The University of Michigan, meanwhile, has partnered with Michigan Central to create a 40-mile-long drone corridor that allows students and businesses to fly beyond visual line of sight between the Ann Arbor campus and the Michigan Central Station.

Other schools such as Northwestern Michigan College, Western Michigan University and Lansing Community College also have drone programs.

‘Arsenal of democracy’

This month, more than 300,000 drones will buzz between Alpena and Grayling as companies compete in the Department of Defense’s Drone Dominance Program. 

The two-week training is one of the largest drone training sessions the state has held. Michigan’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center has another training set in August. 

During a panel discussion about military drones at the Mackinac Island Policy Conference, US Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said that Michigan used to be the “arsenal of democracy” as manufacturing boomed during World War II. She said there should be an investment in the new field of military technology. 

“The nature of warfare is changing,” Slotkin said. “We can see it literally every day when we watch TV. We’ve got $10,000 drones from Iran kicking our ass and killing American soldiers in real time that we can’t properly defend against.”

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