The Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office (UxSRTO) was an agency of the

United States federal government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

, tasked with collecting

meteorological Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture ...

and

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

data using

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s, before it was shut down in March 2024. It was a branch of the

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research. NOAA Research is the research and development arm of NOAA and is the driving force beh ...

(OAR), a division of the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA). The stated goal of the Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office was "to realize this potential by working with NOAA Line Offices, Federal Agencies, and other stakeholders to advance and enhance UxS application across the breadth of NOAA’s mission areas of climate, weather, oceans, and coasts."

History

In June 2023, NOAA announced it was allocating $6.4 million in funding for the UxSRTO and Uncrewed Systems Operations Center (UxSOC). In July 2023, NOAA's UxSRTO reported they had found "no significant impact for the funding, procurement, and operation of NOAA small uncrewed aircraft systems", and the UxSRTO program was shut down by the OAR in March 2024. In February 2025, the

Department of Government Efficiency The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is an initiative by the second Trump administration within the federal government of the United States. Its stated objective is to modernize information technology, maximize productivity, and cut ...

(DOGE) advised NOAA to terminate and deobligate $1,073,496 of funds from the UxSRTO.

References

{{ES Government Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Government agencies disestablished in 2024