When will drone technology become a full-fledged industry? And what role can Bremen play in this? Harald Rossol, CEO of b.r.m. IT & Aerospace, discusses these questions in the latest episode of the podcast “Go Global! Bremen Business Talks” with host Boris Felgendreher.

In this interview, Harald Rossol explains why the common perception of small quadcopters is misleading: The truly exciting developments are taking place in more complex, professional systems. From the end of the hype surrounding air taxis to the challenges of EU drone regulations and the question of jurisdiction regarding drone sightings, all the way to major future commercial markets—such as autonomous agriculture—this episode covers a wide range of topics. It also highlights the role that the safe integration of drones into airspace plays. This is a field in which b.r.m., as a future U-Space Service Provider (USSP), is active through the Bremen UAS Control Center. The episode also discusses Bremen’s significance as a long-established aviation hub and the role of Drone Days as a European platform for the emerging “drone economy.”

The “Go Global! Bremen Business Talks” podcast is a joint project of the Bremen Economic Development Agency, the Bremen Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) for Bremen and Bremerhaven, and the Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation.

• Listen to the podcast online (Podigee): https://goglobal.podigee.io/52-vergiss-den-hobby-quadcopter-warum-die-echte-drohnen-wirtschaft-gerade-erst-beginnt-und-bremen-vorn-dabei-sein-kann 
• Listen to the podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2hhgYbpXXBC8L40laHDqxm 
• Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1560965455 

Listen now—and if you’re interested, you’re cordially invited to attend Drone Days 2026 from August 26 to 28 at Bremen Airport and Oldenburg-Hatten Airfield. Registration and all details are available at drone-days.de.

We have just wrapped up five busy days in Berlin: Markus Rossol and Harald Rossol represented b.r.m. IT & Aerospace at ILA 2026 in Berlin—at the North German Chalet on the joint booth of the State of Bremen, alongside our partners AES Aircraft, Esploro, Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft, TRIGO, and the DLR’s Virtual Product House.

Our ILA presentation focused on three key topics: U-Space and b.r.m.’s role as a future U-Space Service Provider (USSP), our specific U-Space corridor stretching from Bremen through Bremerhaven to Heligoland, and the Drone Days 2026 event in August, which will take place at Bremen Airport and Oldenburg-Hatten Airfield. With the new map of the Advanced Air Mobility Initiative for Northern Germany and the German Bight, we were able to continue and deepen these discussions at the ILA on both a national and international level.

We took advantage of our interactions with key institutions and government agencies—including the Federal Aviation Office (BAF), the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMV), and the Federal Aviation Authority (LBA), as well as various state aviation authorities. In addition, we were able to establish numerous contacts with aviation companies and research institutions and promote Drone Days 2026, which will take place in August.

The ILA has once again demonstrated that unmanned aviation has become mainstream in the industry—and b.r.m. IT & Aerospace, as a future U-Space service provider, is right at the heart of it.

We’re already looking forward to ILA 2028 —until then, see you at Drone Days!

Starting tomorrow, Harald and Markus Rossol will be at ILA 2026 in Berlin—spending five days at the North German States’ shared chalet on the State of Bremen’s joint booth. You can find us at Chalet East, booths 22–24.

We’re bringing with us the new map of the Advanced Air Mobility Initiative for Northern Germany and the German Bight, as well as our concrete proposal for an initial U-Space and a VTOL route along the Weser River, from Bremerhaven to Heligoland. Following its successful debut at AERO in Friedrichshafen, we are now presenting the project to an even broader audience of industry professionals at ILA.

Our schedule includes meetings with the BAF, the BMV, the LBA, and other institutions—the ILA brings together the key players in the German aviation industry in one place.

Are you also attending the ILA? Feel free to contact us—by email or in person at the Bremen joint booth in the North German States’ Chalet.

Next week is the big event: From June 10 to 14, 2026, the ILA Berlin will take place—the world’s oldest aerospace trade fair and one of the most important industry platforms in Europe. Around 750 exhibitors from 37 countries will present the full spectrum of the aerospace industry at the Berlin ExpoCenter Airport in Schönefeld—ranging from civil aviation to space technology and defense to the supply industry. 

b.r.m. IT & Aerospace will be on site at the North German Chalet (Chalets East | 22–24). Together with the other exhibitors, we will be representing the State of Bremen at the joint booth. Our topics at the ILA: our concrete proposal for a U-Space for the Bremen-Bremerhaven-Helgoland corridor, our work as a future U-Space Service Provider (USSP), the Advanced Air Mobility Initiative for Northern Germany and the German Bight, as well as Drone Days 2026, which will take place in August at Bremen Airport and Oldenburg-Hatten Airfield.

For us, the ILA is one of the most important platforms for engaging with government agencies, aviation authorities, and the industry. At AERO in Friedrichshafen, we were able to present our U-Space proposal to an industry audience—and at the ILA, we are continuing these discussions at both the national and international levels.

We look forward to exhibiting at the Bremen joint booth alongside our strong partners:

• AES Aircraft Elektro/Elektronik System GmbH is an internationally established supplier to the aviation industry and has been developing and manufacturing electrical and electronic products for aircraft cabins for 20 years.
• Esploro specializes in the management and support of national and EU-funded research projects in the aviation sector and oversees projects with a total funding volume of over 300 million euros.
• Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft offers custom-made titanium products for the aerospace industry and has operated its own smelter for special alloys since 2021.
• TRIGO Qualitaire GmbH is a multinational provider of operational quality management services with more than 10,000 professionals in 25 countries, serving clients in the aviation and defense industries, among others.
• The DLR's Virtual Product House at ECOMAT in Bremen is driving forward digital aircraft development and working on the virtual certification of aircraft components.

Would you like to meet us at the ILA in the North German Chalet (Chalets East | 22–24)? We look forward to hearing from you—either by email or by phone (contact Harald Rossol or Markus Rossol).

We are thrilled to announce that Drone Days has been nominated as one of 14 projects for the 2026 NordWest Awards of the Northwest Metropolitan Region—in the “Visionary Award” category for highly innovative projects.

From approximately one hundred applications, the jury—under the patronage of Bremen’s Mayor Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte and Lower Saxony’s Minister for Europe and Regional Development, Melanie Walter—selected the finalists. The WeiterdenkerAward is sponsored by EWE AG and swb AG and recognizes ideas that make a significant contribution to the region’s further development and growth.

The fact that Drone Days has been included in this group is a tremendous recognition of the work we have put into developing the event over the past few years—and of the role that unmanned aviation plays as a field of innovation for the Northwest Metropolitan Region.

The awards ceremony will take place in August at the Lower Saxony Open-Air Museum in Cloppenburg. We can't wait!

For more information, visit nordwest-awards.de 

From May 11 to 14, 2026, Harald Rossol and Marius Ammermann will be attending XPONENTIAL 2026 in Detroit—the world’s largest trade show for unmanned systems and robotics.

b.r.m. IT & Aerospace will be exhibiting at the German Pavilion in Hall B–D, Booth 26013-4.

The German Pavilion is the joint booth for German exhibitors at XPONENTIAL and is organized as part of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s (BMWE) international trade fair program. This year, 14 German companies and institutions are represented at the joint booth—including b.r.m. IT & Aerospace, Beagle Systems, Germandrones, HHLA Sky, and Germany Trade & Invest, among others.

Our key areas of focus: unmanned systems (UMS), autonomous platforms, sensor technology, and control systems.

XPONENTIAL is the world’s largest event dedicated to unmanned systems and robotics, bringing together the international UAS community—manufacturers, operators, government agencies, and research institutions—every year. This year, the event is being held jointly with the Michigan Defense Expo (MDEX) for the first time. This underscores the growing importance of autonomous systems in the defense sector. For us, it is an important platform for expanding our international network, gaining first-hand insight into current developments, and positioning b.r.m. IT & Aerospace as a future U-Space service provider in an international context.

For more information about the trade show, visit xponential.org, and learn more about our presence at the German Pavilion.

Drone Days will take place August 26–28, 2026, at Bremen Airport and Oldenburg-Hatten Airfield. Register now as an exhibitor. For more information, visit drone-days.de.

AERO 2026 is now behind us, and we look back on an intense few days in Friedrichshafen.

The focus was on the presentation of the new Advanced Air Mobility Initiative for Northern Germany and the German Bight, along with the updated map. For the first time, we presented our concrete proposal for an initial U-Space and a VTOL route along the Weser River —from Bremen via Bremerhaven to Heligoland. In initial discussions with the aviation authorities in Lower Saxony and Bremen, we were able to discuss the basic feasibility of the project.

In addition, we have engaged in dialogue with key institutions and ministries: the Federal Supervisory Authority for Air Navigation Services (BAF), the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV), the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the Federal Aviation Authority (LBA), and various state aviation authorities. Of particular note is our collaboration with the IDRF, the Association of Regional Airports, which advocates for the role of regional airports as future infrastructure hubs for new forms of mobility.

Two themes emerged as recurring themes at AERO: the relevance of existing aviation infrastructure and manned aviation to the development of the drone economy, and the belief that digital visibility in airspace enhances safety for all airspace users.

AERO has once again demonstrated how closely manned and unmanned aviation are converging. We look forward to the next steps.

We would like to thank everyone involved and the organizers of the Bremen joint booth “BREMEN/BREMERHAVEN – CITY OF AEROSPACE.”

• WFB Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH
• AVIASPACE BREMEN e.V.
• Deutsche WindGuard Engineering, LLC
• Rheinmetall Aviation Services, LLC
• b.r.m. IT & Aerospace GmbH
• Akkodis Germany AS&D GmbH
• DMO Deutsche Modellsportorganisation GmbH & Co. KG
• Bremen Airport GmbH
• TOPAS Industrial Mathematics Transfer, LLC
• iMAR Navigation GmbH
• Fraunhofer IFAM Offshore Drone Campus Cuxhaven (ODCC) – Cuxhaven Site
• Lower Saxony Aviation Authority (NLStBV)
• Ignite, LLC
• Bremen Aviation Authority

A contiguous U-Space airspace stretching from Bremen through Bremerhaven to Heligoland—that is our concrete proposal for one of the first U-Spaces in northern Germany. The U-Space concept has been presented to the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV). At AERO 2026 in Friedrichshafen, we will present the project to a wider professional audience for the first time.

The planned U-Space follows the Weser River from south to north: from Bremen Airport along the port facilities in Bremen-Stadt and Bremen-Nord, across the Lower Weser with the port locations of Elsfleth, Brake, and Nordenham to the seaport of Bremerhaven—and from there onward across the Weser estuary into the German Bight toward Heligoland. This creates a seamless identification chain from inland waters to the open sea.

Why there, specifically? According to EU Regulation 2021/664, a U-Space may be established, among other reasons, when the protection of critical infrastructure requires regulated and identified drone operations. This is precisely the basis for our proposal: along the Weser River, port facilities, maritime shipping routes, logistics infrastructure, and industrial sites are concentrated within a small area. The U-Space enables the reliable identification of all drones in the area and the immediate distinction between legal and illegal operations

As the first concrete proposal for a U-Space in northern Germany, b.r.m. IT & Aerospace has presented the idea to the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMV), the Bremen Aviation Authority, and the Lower Saxony Aviation Authority. We already have active sensor systems in place throughout the entire planned U-Space area and possess the technical capabilities to operate as a future U-Space Service Provider (USSP). The German U-Space Act is expected to be enacted in the course of 2026.

At the same time, the Bremen-Bremerhaven-Helgoland corridor offers ideal conditions for one of the first urban air mobility routes in northern Germany. The U-Space infrastructure lays the groundwork for future VTOL air taxi traffic to integrate seamlessly—with potential vertiport locations ranging from Bremen Airport to the waterfront, Bremen-Nord, and the Lower Weser region, all the way to Bremerhaven and Heligoland.

For more information on the regulatory landscape, please see our article " U-Space in Germany & Europe."

We look forward to connecting with you at AERO 2026. You can find us in Hall 5, Booth 5-225.

Joint Booth of the State of Bremen

• Bremen Bremerhaven: City of Aerospace
• Accodis
• Bremen Airport
• b.r.m. IT & Aerospace
• German Windguard
• The Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation
• DMO
• Drone Days
• Oldenburg-Hatten airfield
• Fraunhofer IFAM
• iMAR Navigation & Control
• ignite group
• Lower Saxony State Authority for Road Construction and Transportation
• Bremen Aviation Authority
• Rheinmetall
• TOPAS

Harald and Markus Rossol

On April 7th, we welcomed State Councillor Jan Fries, Senator for the Environment, Climate and Science, and Martin Schulze, Head of the Environmental Business Office at RKW Bremen, to our location at Bremen Airport. During a company visit, they learned about our work at the interface of IT services and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Our Managing Director, Harald Rossol, explained to the guests, among other things, the airspace mapping for our Bremen UAS control center as a future U-Space Service Provider . Furthermore, he discussed our long-standing approach to Green IT and sustainable data centers – a topic that has been with us since the beginning and which we have consistently transferred to aviation.

During his visit, State Councillor Jan Fries emphasized the importance of companies like brm IT & Aerospace for the sustainable transformation of Bremen's economy: Here, they don't just talk, they take action. Especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), practical solutions are being developed that bring climate and economic interests together.

As a member of the Bremen Environmental Partnership for Businesses, we have a long-standing partnership with RKW Bremen. Together with RKW, we already laid important groundwork in developing the foundations for the Blue Angel ecolabel for data centers.

We thank State Councillor Jan Fries and Martin Schulze for their visit and the valuable exchange.

The full report on the company visit can be found on the website of the Partnership Environment Business .

On March 11, 2026, the kickoff meeting for our collaborative project SafeUAVnav took place at Fraunhofer IFAM in Bremen. Together with our partners and the project sponsor, we laid the groundwork for the coming years.

What is SafeUAVnav?

Our goal: To develop and test a robust multi-hybrid sensor system for the safe navigation and localization of UAVs (drones) in so-called “GNSS-denied” environments—that is, in areas where satellite-based navigation is disrupted by jamming or spoofing. The project brings together the expertise of iMAR Navigation GmbH, Fraunhofer IFAM, and b.r.m. IT & Aerospace GmbH and is funded under the LuFo Klima VII-1 aviation research program.

The kickoff was marked by an open, constructive atmosphere and in-depth technical discussions. We were particularly pleased with the enthusiastic participation of everyone involved. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Jonathan Berberich of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for his participation and valuable insights regarding the project’s implementation.

We are excited about this collaboration and look forward to working together to achieve our ambitious project goals.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).