A major drone maker and a top safety school team up to train pilots of a popular Japanese drone.

Japanese drone giant ACSL has partnered with the Unmanned Safety Institute (USI), a leading UAS training organization, to create a specialized training and certification program for operators of its SOTEN drone platform. The program will cover everything from basic flight operations to advanced mission planning using the SOTEN aircraft and its companion flight software.

For companies adopting these drones, this means pilots can get standardized, expert training directly relevant to the hardware they are using, which should improve safety and operational efficiency. The launch follows a reported 400% surge in orders for ACSL drones in early 2026, indicating a rapid scaling of deployments that now requires a formalized training pipeline. This move signals the maturation of the commercial drone industry, where specialized, platform-specific certification is becoming as important as the hardware itself.