A consultation for those who do this work
UAS Investigation and Operational Needs
Dear colleague,
The criminal and hostile use of unmanned aircraft systems is evolving rapidly, creating new challenges for detection, response, evidence preservation, attribution and investigation.
This consultation is designed to ensure that practitioner experience directly informs future policy, capability development and investigative support.
The Sovereign Institute is conducting this international practitioner consultation to identify the recurring operational and investigative friction points encountered in this field. The findings will be analysed across participating jurisdictions and used to develop a practitioner-focused white paper on investigative and operational capability in UAS incidents, identifying common challenges, priority capability gaps and practical opportunities for improvement.
The consultation is intended for investigators, analysts, operational specialists, supervisors, prosecutors and other practitioners with direct experience of the subject. Participation is voluntary. Estimated completion time is approximately 15-20 minutes, and you may skip questions that are not relevant to your work.
Please do not include classified information, sensitive operational techniques, details of ongoing investigations, vulnerabilities, or information that could identify individuals or operations.
Responses will be analysed in aggregate and will not be attributed to individual respondents without their express consent. Any contact details provided for future participation should be collected separately from questionnaire responses and used only for the purpose stated.
Supporting organisations assist with dissemination and practitioner reach. Their participation does not imply endorsement of individual responses or pre-approval of the consultation's eventual findings or recommendations.
Your experience will directly shape the analysis, recommendations and practical priorities that follow.
Before you begin
- Your responses are stored on sovereign European infrastructure — no data leaves that jurisdiction, and there are no trackers, analytics, or advertising scripts.
- You’ll begin with your email. It saves your progress so you can continue on any device, and it’s how we’ll send you the resulting white paper.
- Your responses are confidential — held only by the research team, never attached to your name in any report, and analysed only in aggregate. We don’t store your IP address.
- Every answer saves as you go. Close the page and pick up exactly where you left off.
20-25 minutes - save and return whenever you need.