Reliable Robotics CEO Advocates for Autonomous Aviation and National Airspace Safety Before U.S. Congress

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Robert Rose, CEO and co-founder of Reliable Robotics, the leader in autonomous aircraft systems, delivered testimony before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure on the advancements in aviation safety-enhancing aviation automation technologies poised for integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) that will prevent aircraft accidents, save lives and connect more communities with air service.

In his testimony before the Subcommittee on Aviation during the “America Builds: The State of the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Industry” hearing, Rose discussed the criticality of autonomous aviation in fortifying the nation’s leadership position in aviation and bolstering national security efforts. He detailed the company’s momentum toward achieving FAA certification for the Reliable Autonomy System (RAS), building its safety-enhancing Detect and Avoid (DAA) system, and its contract with the U.S. Air Force to build and deploy an autonomous Cessna 208B Caravan in the Indo-Pacific region to enable continuous contested logistics operations.

Since the passage of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, Reliable has made progress bringing certified autonomy to the Cessna 208 Caravan to deliver safety benefits for regional cargo operations and to provide a dual-use solution for contested logistics. The FAA has agreed to the certification basis and means of compliance for the RAS, and Reliable is in execution mode, delivering daily on compliance materials in accordance with the agreed-upon plan.

Reliable also introduced its industry-first phased array Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, designed to facilitate safe aircraft integration and interoperable collision avoidance using the Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (ACAS X), a safety-enhancing upgrade to legacy collision avoidance systems. Reliable is committed to certifying its products in the United States and continues to make significant investments in domestic manufacturing. Today, Reliable manufactures the radar and the RAS in the U.S., to be retrofitted onto the Cessna 208 Caravan which is manufactured by Textron Aviation in Independence, Kansas.

“To maintain our nation’s leadership in aviation, there must be a whole-of-government focus on catalyzing the AAM industry. We need the FAA to continue leaning into safety-enhancing innovations, collaborating across agency lines of business to operationalize autonomy and leveraging this historic focus on Air Traffic Control modernization to enable new forms of air mobility,” said Rose. “The focus on AAM in the bipartisan FAA Reauthorization bill has created pathways for companies like Reliable to accelerate our progress building autonomous aviation solutions that will provide for a safe, scalable airspace for all users.”

Additional highlights from his testimony:

• Certifying aircraft autonomy is crucial to U.S. competitiveness. Global competition facing the United States demonstrates the economic and safety imperatives behind the race to high-reliability aircraft autonomy. The FAA’s focus on building an organizational structure to advance AAM innovation facilitates progress on this national priority. Recent Uncrewed Aircraft System-focused Executive Orders and the AAM Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) will further accelerate progress on airspace integration and operational approvals. Reliable’s fully automated Cessna 208 Caravan will help expand remotely piloted air cargo operations to small towns and rural communities. Fully certified autonomous aircraft will fully integrate into the NAS, enabling small communities and businesses across America to receive next-day shipments, including critical medical supplies.

• Aircraft autonomy will enhance safety for all airspace users. Automation directly addresses the most common causes of fatal aviation incidents. Efforts to improve aviation safety in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, including its focus on ADS-B Out equipage and a leadership-level focus on aircraft autonomy are crucial first steps to enhancing airspace safety. Reliable’s defined certification path for its Detect And Avoid (DAA) solution, which includes the FAA’s robust ACAS X collision avoidance technology, will substantially reduce the probability of mid-air collisions and provide for the safe, continued scalability of our airspace.

• The national security imperative for autonomous aviation. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth named Contested Logistics (LOG) a key operational focus for 2026 and issued a call for the Department of War to work with industry partners to rapidly develop and deploy innovative solutions to counter that challenge. Reliable’s dual-use aircraft autonomy integrates into all classes of airspace and is crucial for delivering contested logistics capabilities that support agility and maneuver concepts for the joint force. With an active contract to deploy an automated Caravan in the Indo-Pacific for the U.S. Air Force in 2026, Reliable is committed to contributing to the nation’s competitive stance as a leader in aviation.