The UK Civil Aviation Authority has announced the launch of its UK Specific Operation Risk Assessment (also known as UK SORA), an online digital risk assessment system designed to enhance the safety and efficiency of unmanned aircraft operations.
SORA went live on 23 April 2025 and aims to provide a more transparent and consistent approach to risk assessments for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operators, such as drones, making it easier and quicker for operators to gain approvals.
The launch of UK SORA has the potential to transform the drone authorisation process to meet forecast demand of the industry in the UK and enables the UK Civil Aviation Authority to scale more complex operations, including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
This is key to the regulatory framework that enables rapid growth in the UK drone sector, helping deliver UK Government priorities.
Prior to the launch of SORA, the programme achieved its first major milestone in April 2024 with the launch of the online PDRA-01 Operational Authorisation service.
This service introduced self-declaration and reduced the processing time of applications from 14 days to just 30 minutes on average.
The regulator’s SORA launch means it brings the UK in line with 67 other countries globally who use SORA for risk assessment of uncrewed operations.
Sophie O’Sullivan, Director of Future of Flight at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:
“The introduction of UK SORA marks a significant shift in the way the CAA conducts risk assessments to foster safer, more efficient environment for drone operations.
“This will pave the way for advances in drone technology and applications across various industries as we enable beyond visual line of sight growth in the UK drone sector.”