# [Case Study] CASA Approved Automated Drone Operations for Airport Security - Event: NestGen ’25 - Published: June 19, 2025 - Length: 32:28 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/t3hN3rn7u-0/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## Transcript **[0:21]** Hello everyone and welcome to Nestine 2025. I'm Renad Berry and I spearhead business development in the Asia-Pacific region here at Frightbrace. I'm absolutely thrilled to have you here with us today. How are you all doing? Please make sure you drop a quick note in the chat and let me know where you're joining from and also let me know what you're most excited about today. Also, don't forget to share your thoughts on our Nest wall of love using the hashtag NestGen. A little bit about today's session. We're going to be diving into MSS Security's integrated approach to transforming security and emergency response. We're here to explore how MSS is redefining the security landscape across Australia through comprehensive solutions that span traditional security services, aviation, and advanced emergency response training. From cutting edge technology and security to innovative aviation operations and specialized safety training, this session covers **[1:22]** it all. A little bit about the speaker here today. I'm pleased to introduce Gregory Nan, the head of aviation and emerging technologies at MSS security and also the chief remote pilot. MSS being the biggest security company in Australia and one of Asia-Pacific's largest security companies. Greg brings about 18 years of experience in operations management, aviation operations, training, development, and investigations. Greg is also spearheading the dog deployments of MSS security for high-profile end users such as Sport Lincoln using FlytBase. Greg's innovative approach to integrating advanced aviation technology with robust security measures is driving transformation within the industry and beyond. This makes him the perfect person to guide us through MSS Security's journey of innovation and excellence. Before we jump into the heart of today's conversation, there's just a few housekeeping items. Please type any questions you have into the Q&A or the chat box. We'll circle back during our Q&A segment. Remember that the **[2:26]** session is being recorded and it will be available after the event. Of course, last but not the least, please snap some pictures and share your favorite moments on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram using the hashtag NestGen. You might just get a cool surprise. All right, now that we've set the stage, I'm excited to hand the mic over to our esteemed speaker of the day, Greg. All over to you, Greg. Thanks for that, Barry. Um, hopefully everybody can hear me right and uh I've got the settings right on this thing. Um, I want to for inviting me to to be on here and I guess uh for for really really saving our saving our our behinds u when it came to uh the way that we actually met uh with with Fireface. So, um I I'll give you a quick quick brief on that before I sort of go into the rest of it is uh we had a trial at at a big infrastructure facility that MSS security was um going to be doing for about 5 **[3:29]** weeks. And about a week out, the provider that we were supposed to be using for our uh for our dock uh control uh solution came back to us and said, "Oh, we know you've been using us for a lot of your EV loss sort of operations and and Vlos operations. However, uh we don't actually have any doc software that that actually works. This was after telling us for the past 12 months that they had doc software and we've been we've been uh planning to sort of roll it out. However, not actually rolling out docs uh too frequently before that we didn't really have a need uh to be able to implement. So about a week before uh we were supposed to go live u they finally came back to me after chasing them up and chasing them up about uh getting the software connected to our docs and they said we don't have it. So naturally uh sort of I guess fear and panic set in. I called up somebody Jackie Durovich which is uh from Hobby UAV somebody who is absolutely amazing in the industry and I said look I need any software you can actually do I don't want to use the traditional DJI software I **[4:33]** want something else that has that sort of next level and and something else. Connected me straight through to FlytBase. Um within 24 hours we had uh links sent in to be able to connect our our docs in. Um within the next couple of days we had all of our pilots um in sessions training learning how to do it. And then a couple of days before we uh even uh deployed for our initial bump in on site. Everything was done. Everything was connected. It was as if I had the entire I felt as if I had the entire business just backing me supporting us to be able to make it work. Um, and it wasn't their fault that we came to them last minute, but they really they really did come through in the end. So, um, I am very grateful for for everything that happened. Not to mention the product's actually pretty good itself. Uh, but the the way in which they are able to really really uh really really salvage our operation uh is something that I I will always really appreciate. So, I'll uh I'll go through a little bit talk about um so I am head of aviation and uh emerging technologies. Uh we do have around 8,000 staff that work for us um in MSS security. **[5:38]** Um of our contracts, most of the blue chip government contracts uh most of the defense contract we have uh within Australia. Uh have about 22 airports that we work in providing screening and security. Um and that is in in my purview. I also work within AI development technologies, all the other emerging technologies and I am the CRP and director of the of the drone business as well. Uh what we found was um a couple of years ago when we were starting to go for some of our really really large tenders that a lot of organizations within security are now wanting to have a drone option to be able to actually attach to um as a service provider and they don't want to be able to have a subcontractor that comes in and provides the drone service. they actually wanted to have a business that offers drones um as a as a service um full spectrum um which can then complement all of the guards on the ground, the control room staff we have monitoring all the cameras and it really rounds out the entire um the entire security solution. So um that's really **[6:39]** how I sort of came in about 2 and a half years ago. uh knowing quite a lot about aviation and enjoying playing with drones um when I played with them in a um I guess a more personal manner but not really anything to do with uh uh the professional side of it. So partnering with people like Hover UAV um Abby Assist AB CRM really getting in um to learn everything that we needed to learn really get into the compliance part of it the approvals part of it and what we were actually allowed to do. Um it was uh it was a real a real crash course in what we had to do but I guess partnering with the best people out there I was I was fortunate to be able to get to where we are uh in such a great position. Uh so I am again very thankful to those uh people. Um I didn't know where I was actually going to be in this presentation. I didn't know I was actually going to be one of the first people coming on today. So, I thought maybe I'll put uh a bit of a twominute footage of a couple of of our uh drone operations um putting together. Uh my daughter put this footage together. She is quite **[7:40]** talented. Um however, don't judge me for uh for uh if it's uh if it's not really the perfect uh footage there, but I I'll put it on anyway. So this is over in uh WA over at PTA. Um a lot of their the trains as we would know trains across the world uh get uh get graffiti quite a lot and they spend quite a bit of money in uh in uh repairing the vandalism. Over here was one of our trials that we had done at a um a water infrastructure facility um and just really being able to show within uh different types of environments um how it worked. over here. This is Port Lincoln Airport. This was um I'll talk about this a little bit later, but this is uh actual part of the footage from the first flight that uh first BB loss flight that happened in an airport uh in Australia. Um so we were quite happy with uh with uh with that and this has all been happening with uh with flight software. Uh Greg, just uh you know, sorry to interrupt. Are you **[8:45]** sharing your screen? Uh, yep. Should be It's not It's not not sharing. Yeah, it's just easier. Let me reset it. Yeah, sure. Okay, we sharing now. Yep. Perfect. Okay, how about I play that one again? Okay. Uh, so again, PTA in WA. This is at the moment this is where they just park some the trans at night. Um this is again everything we do is focused on security. I know um there is a lot of companies on here that will be doing drones for for a lot of other reasons but we are set for security. Uh this was at a water infrastructure facility that we were doing a trial at the one where FlytBase really really came through for us. This is our beaver loss approval at uh Port Lincoln airport in South Australia. And this is actually some footage from the first ever uh BB loss flight um at an airport in **[9:49]** Australia. So we were u we were quite proud to um to be able to get that through CASA. I do have some more footage of it later on that we can actually actually put onto. So um already sort of covered off a bit on what MSS is. Again, massive security company. We are the biggest now uh within Australia providing for all blue chip um government sort of corporization corporate Yep. Um and airports. Uh not only are we security and aviation, we are also strategic medical. So we have the biggest private medical um service and team uh as a business uh in Australia. So when you have paramedics at mine sites, um out on the oil rigs, you can have them in airports really anywhere. we can deploy them uh to be able to uh provide services for that and strategic rescue as well. So um going into compliant spaces which is something we're also now deploying drones into um where we **[10:49]** can some of the drones that we can deploy that don't rely on the GNSS but more more of a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signal to be able to go into those uh deep and dark crevices um is really actually improving the safety for for a lot of our a lot of our staff in there too. Uh we are owned by a parent company in uh in in in India called SIS and it's one of Asia Pacific's uh largest security companies, facility management companies, cleaning companies, uh merging into tech companies. It's it really is quite a beast over there. So we're able to actually leverage all of their business to be able to actually support ours as well. and where I'm working within the tech space when it comes to AI and VR and a lot of other things that we're doing. Um it's really quite great uh to be able to pull down from our parent company. Look, our mission statement with what we do, you don't really need to um sort of go through and read it. We're a security company. We want to be able to provide the best security service that we can. Uh people can only do so much on the ground. CCTV **[11:50]** cameras can do things too, but having portable CCTV cameras that can actually respond to incidents as we go. We can communicate directly through the drone to people on the ground. Uh whether they're injured, whether they're in the wrong space, um whatever it could be, if there's, you know, fires, damaging, anything like that. Um it really is um filling a gap that has been in the industry for for really quite some time. Um, and we're we're really quite excited about where we're where we're going at the moment and how we're expanding at such a such a great rate. Port Lincoln Airport Operations. So, uh, we've had our REOP for about 2 years now. 18 months ago or just over 18 months ago, we put in approval to have a a BB loss drone operating at uh, at Port Lincoln Airport. Now, we did that because I manage airport operations and then I was getting into the drones and I thought this would be a really great thing to have. Not really knowing the headaches that were going to be in front of me for what I had to actually deal with with Cassa to be able to get a drone at an airport. Um, **[12:53]** it ended up taking about 18 months. There was no other uh I guess business that had actually done this before or Cassa hadn't actually approved it to be done before is what I should say. Doesn't mean a business didn't do it. uh there was no precedent for them to actually follow on and see what it was. So every step that we took with them there was what about this, what about this, what could happen, what problems are going to be, what how are we going to mitigate this risk, what what about you know coming closer into aircraft and every single thing that we did we had to have additional solutions for tailoring our flight paths, times of flight, everything that we were doing. Um, however, we were able to get it uh get it across the line and which is why it's a dock one because the time that we actually put the submission in, we put in with a dock one and then to change to a dock two was going to take further time to actually get it get it adjusted. So, we were able to actually get um get that coming through and I think it was was it November, December uh last year. So, this is us just setting it up. This is actually where it is. Um what we do with **[13:56]** it is we have full approval to be able to fly in and around uh Port Lincoln airport anywhere across the airport, the runway, anything what whatsoever. However, our flight pass that we do is focusing on the perimeter fence line, looking for breaches, looking for wildlife activity, vehicles that are too close to the fence, a whole bunch of aviation regulations, which not drone regulations, but about aviation security and and rules that need to be abided by. Um, so tracking that we're able to push out through the RTSP feeds from um from uh Firebase uh the footage to be able to run it through our own AI and I do know that you have your own AI Barry which you ran me through and that's quite exciting and um looking forward to uh to being able to test out some of that as well. However, uh before we were across that, we do own our own AI company. So, we're pushing it through there looking for people that aren't wearing high viz um **[14:56]** and uh a myriad of other things that we're actually doing uh amongst the airfield. As we come around the airfield, we're also looking at um on the border roads, the car park, um and then covering up some of the facilities as well, so we can look at some facility management parts um as we're sort of going with it. So, at the moment, we run uh nighttime operations. It's the the highest risk for security um anywhere really when it comes to nighttime operations when the airport isn't uh the airport terminal isn't active. There are still um some flights that will be coming in arriving flights. No real departing commercial flights. Uh RPT flights will be going out, but GA is coming in and the Royal Doctors uh are still still coming in um quite a bit. Um so yeah, look, we've had had quite a bit of success uh with this. Um as a result of this and some of our other trials, we've got another I think seven approvals in at the m moment for BB less operations uh across uh across Australia. **[15:57]** Um we've got another one starting uh next month at uh BHP, a mine site. Um mines are renowned for having drone quite a lot of drone activity already. However, not not specifically for security. So given that we are the biggest security company, we have offered this now to all of our clients and they are uh are picking it up quite rapidly. The first one being uh BHP in uh Newman while back. Uh so we'll be patrolling along the uh the rail lines and uh all the perimeter areas of the um of the zone during the during the night where the entry points are generally coming in for some locals that will come in and um try to commit some offenses uh on site when there's nobody around stealing cars and everything like that. Uh we're able to find the people with our drones, communicate to the guards that are on site directly as well as sharing them live footage the entire time. and they can be watching everything that we're doing. Uh, and then immediately get them to actually respond. The cars are now mounted with with tablets so they can actually watch live uh the **[17:01]** footage which will be coming through from uh from FlytBase so they can actually see exactly what the drone can see. Further around safety to make sure that as they're approaching the situation, they're not going to be um getting into anything above their head and know in advance if they need to call the police or if they need to call for additional uh backup as it is. So um this is uh I guess this is the map. This is the the area of our approval for for Port Lincoln. If anyone has any interest in it, we do have our um you know initial flight paths that we are going through uh our buffer zones and everything like that. We are planning to do be focusing on perimeter uh perimeter operations. However, in the in the final approvals that we went through, it just ended up getting opened up to the entire airport um because they were quite quite satisfied with everything that we were doing. Um is there any any any questions anyone has at the moment? I know I just keep talking. **[18:03]** No, right. So Greg, we also we also polls that are live, you know. So yeah, any questions for Greg polls that are live, right? Great. So Greg, we also have I've got actually got the footage from Right. I was saying that we have a dedicated Q&A session. Yeah. So we can carry on and we can maybe you know circle back to this during the Q&A session. Okay. Perfect. Yeah, absolutely. Uh so what I've actually done this is basically what we actually do as a security company. It won't suit every you know drone as a service provider. Uh however we have our drones captures the footage sends it back runs it through the AI looking for security threats. um it sends it through our proprietary reporting software which then will automatically send a ticket to one of our guards that needs to respond and then they can sort of go **[19:03]** through u go through the whole prompts there. So um look it's working really well at the moment. Uh very happy with the with the software that we're using and uh everything seems to be yeah going really well. I I'm really keen to to get feedback or any other suggestions or or questions about um better ways to be able to, you know, operate uh drones for the security purpose. Um however, yeah, we'll probably have to wait for a Q&A for that. What I've actually done here is I've got the the first flight that we actually did at Port Lincoln Airport when we got our first this was our first approval flight. Um, that was a little sub area that we decided to fly in. Don't worry, you actually do get to see some better footage in this, but this actually shows you where we're operating from uh and how the map actually went. We were running hopefully extreme. Yep. Uh we were running in the front and then coming around to be able to go the the **[20:07]** perimeter of the front coming down along the runway and then coming back along um through the uh through the aircraft um parking lot. What we did find u was some wildlife that were coming through. Some dogs don't have any idea how they actually got on. Uh some foxes that came through as well. Um oh it's not liking it. It's probably too big for the stream. Uh and we did find several people that were coming in towards the terminal u which it alerted us to um immediately which was which was actually quite good. So we run this now uh most nights um around the perimeter of the entire airport. However, I'm I'm not actually able to share the entire footage due to privacy. However, I did have permission from the airport to be able to show you the initial approval flight. Um, look, it might not be the most exciting thing in the world, but uh it's the same as monitoring CCTV, **[21:08]** doing a security patrol, whatever it could be. This is just a much more safer u time effective uh you know, use of a resource that we can do to be able to find people that are um that have ill intent to interfere with aviation. in this case, you know, break into uh facilities, cause harm to people, um everything like that. So, this is this is actually getting quite a bit of interest at the moment at uh universities for for nighttime uh patrolling around uh where the domeies are and uh and things like that in some some low light areas. We can we can go across with uh with the LP12 with the nice spotlight on uh or I think it's the uh LP21 that's going to be coming out for the M3D2 um where you can you can just light up the area and then speak to anybody which is is really really quite effective as a deterrent when it comes to security. Um, and we've just found that, yeah, it's **[22:11]** whatever we think of there's an issue throughout the business, we can generally think of some way that a drone could be used as a solution. So, I'll see if I can speed it up. That's across the runway. Then we're coming back out. I always say it kind of looked like a video game when you were when you were flying over it. The shape of the buildings and uh and the aircraft when they're parked. It just sort of looked a bit surreal when we first went over it. This was about 3:00 in the morning uh after we finally got everything with Fly Safe approved through DJI to be able to fly in an airport. It was one of those one of those things that given it was the first airport to to do the dock, we we really had no idea about uh some of the additional measures that needed to be taken. **[23:29]** and coming back down. Nothing too exciting. We didn't find any criminals at that time, but uh it was uh it was great to be able to actually do it. So, I was just uh glad that I could share that with uh with you all. Okay. So, look, I guess in summary, Cassa, 18 months to be able to get an airport approval to run a drone. Hopefully, now that we've got one, it might be a bit quicker to be able to get additional ones put on. Uh, look, initially it was no, you're not going to be able to get a drone. There's no way we're going to allow a drone to be at the airport. Uh and then working with Abby Assist and Ross Anderson uh who is um really quite a great uh quite a great expert in the field. He was able to go back and say well why you tell me why not and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you what we can do to appease any concerns you have any risks that you have. And that was the journey that we **[24:29]** took. And it was going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until I don't know if he wore them down or if they actually started to believe us that we were going to be able to do it right. Um, and since then it's been uh it's been it's been quite a success. So, yeah, that's really all I've uh all I've got um at at the moment. Um hopefully you got something out of that. And um and yeah, I'll I'll wait for the Q&A session, I guess, Barry, considering I don't think anybody's really talking here. Oh, wait. Yep, there's something in the in the chat group. Great. Uh, yes, I did. Um, Matthew, I did actually see um in the introduction some of the amazing stuff that's happening over in Europe. Uh, I might have to might have to find a way to get my way get my way over there to uh to have a have a closer look at how we can better our operations over here by mirroring some of the things over there. Uh, they they appear to be a little bit more advanced than what we're doing **[25:31]** over here. So, uh, so yeah. Great. That's about it, Barry. Right. All right. Thank you so much, you know, Greg, for all of these valuable insights and a huge thank you to all of um you for joining us today as well. Uh for some of the engaging questions, interactions. Um you know, before we wrap up, we of course want to have these questions that you know were asked. Let's just address them. So of course uh Matthew mentioned that it's a very interesting journey similar to the one you've got an anonymous question that says what are the key regulatory hurdles faced by companies when integrating advanced security and emergency response technologies and how can they be overcome it's in the Q&A session there Greg we also have anyone who has questions any comments any queries please drop them in the Q&A **[26:33]** section. Uh we also have a request from David Estraa. So maybe David, if you could just put in the Q&A session, that would be great. Uh look, so um so what are some of the key regulatory hurdles faced? It it certainly is uh restrictions by uh what CASER is imposing with us. um you know flying over people, distance of people, u what is actually um what is actually considered to be a more densely populated area versus a less densely populated area and I guess really how you can reduce that sore rate to a to the to the lower one. Um but I'll tell you the biggest hurdle that we have actually come with um is the time it takes to actually get the approvals and I understand that that you know the regulatory body that we have over here is overwhelmed with everything and everybody's trying to get approvals through and they don't just want to rush them uh and I wouldn't want them to rush them and then have have a bunch of safety risks uh all all around uh Australia. Uh however the the amount of time it's **[27:35]** by the time by the time there is um we have an idea for a solution we're waiting six to 12 months for for casser actually approved to be able to implement it. Uh or if we are to put in a a immediate solution the it is cost prohibitive. So BB loss is a very cost effective model for security for for so many operations. Um, however, when it comes to um, yeah, when it comes to the the expediency of getting it, it it makes it a bit of a unattractive for some people. And then if you run an EV loss operation or a V-lo operation, you're paying staff 24/7 to run it and it just becomes an issue. Um, right. Uh, Greg, I think the next question is by Sean Barrett. Um, do you have OP approval as part of this BL or Sora? Uh, I'm going to need to know what that actual acronym is. Sorry. Um, **[28:37]** Sean, can you uh Yeah, Sean here is from the Western Australia Police. So, right, Sean, could you just elaborate on that? Yep. While we're at that, we also have David. Uh David, I can approve your request. Um right now, um Sean says, "Ops over or near people." Oh yeah, sorry. Okay. Um sorry, I am familiar with some of the uh the more brief acronyms that they have. Uh so yes, um given the location that we are, we can fly over over or near people. Um, however, during certain times of of the day, we we aren't able to fly over the terminal due to it being considered a densely populated area. Is that if that answers the the question? But as far as every everywhere else in uh in the airport, it's considered a um a not densely populated area. So, we can we can um go over them **[29:40]** and uh andor around and near them. If that if that answers it. Um Can you also have Sorry, sorry, I'm just trying to read it at the moment. How are you seeing the autonomous sensors being triggered and are the triggers autonomous or human watching are seen uh to see a trigger? Um, so you're talking about when we actually uh identify a threat, is it that the AI is actually identifying it or is it that our pilots are actually identifying it? That's if that's um if that's the question, well then it's actually both. Um so if that isn't the question, please please correct me and and and elaborate on it. However, our pilots are watching it uh the entire time and they are security trained. So they are looking for security type threats. uh at the same time they are the ones that are receiving the uh the AI analysis that's coming through for any additional uh threats that have been identified and then they will be able to uh go back and review uh to **[30:45]** be able to verify exactly what that is and if need they will take it off the autonomous flight path and then turn around and um and then they can actually follow up on anything that they found. Um hopefully hopefully that was that was the right answer. Great. Is there any any other ones? Right. I think we had uh Latchi Stewart. Um Latchi, if you could just put your question in the chat box or if you could just put in the Q&A section that would be great. Right. Perfect. We shall get back to you with that then Lachi in case. All right. Any other questions on the floor? Any other points or questions on the floor? Right. We've had about two three questions and I think um yep we can surely close it on that. So thank you so much um everyone for asking your questions and thank you so much Greg for you know answering these **[31:49]** questions and for putting up the lovely presentation. you know, I think that was pretty good there. Right. Well, good. Thank you very much for that. Thank you for your time. Right. Thank you so much for your time, Greg. And thank you so much everyone for attending this session. Um, thanks for joining and thanks for tuning in and don't forget to, you know, just post your thoughts with the hashtag NestGen. I am Nad Berry and I've been your host for today. Thank you so much everybody. Hope you have a great day ahead. Right. Cheers, guys.