This week’s “Around the Commercial Drone Industry” news round-up looks at Amazon’s decision to pause some drone delivery operations, an airspace security partnership between SkySafe and the PGA, and a new drone detection system in Hong Kong.

Prime Air Pauses Drone Deliveries in Texas and Arizona

According to GeekWire, Amazon has “voluntarily paused its Prime Air drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona.” The announcement comes in the wake of the crash of two drones at an Oregon testing facility in December, but Amazon has “downplayed the role of a reported crash” in its decision. The article quotes a company spokesperson who stated that Amazon is “currently in the process of making software changes” to its MK30 delivery drone, and “services will resume once these updates are completed and approved by the FAA.”

To learn how this news could be a positive development for the drone delivery sector, read the Commercial UAV News article, “Pause on Amazon drone deliveries reveals the path forward.”

Airspace Security at PGA Tour Event

For the third straight year, SkySafe will partner with the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open to provide airspace security. As reported in Dronelife, the drone detection and airspace security software developer will deploy its “advanced detection technology can help mitigate the growing threat of unauthorized drones” at the tournament. According to the report, SkySafe’s systems will “alert tournament organizers and the Unified Command team when unauthorized drones are detected, including their exact launch location” and allow “only approved drones (mostly operated by media partners Golf Channel and CBS)” to fly during the event. The Farmers Insurance open will be held January 22-25 at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, California.

Drone-Detecting Periscope in Hong Kong

News of another advance in urban drone detection and security comes from The Standard in Hong Kong. The news outlet reports that “City University, in collaboration with Nanjing University of Science and Technology, has unveiled a groundbreaking programmable periscope designed to detect drones operating out of sight, even when blocked by towering buildings.” The report states that the periscope uses a “low-cost, ultra-thin metasurface” to “modulate the amplitude, phase and polarization of surrounding light, allowing for more accurate detection of obscured drones.”