Portuguese firm to Provide Ukraine with Long-range Drones

Portuguese drone maker Tekever will supply Ukraine with long-range drones, a move bankrolled by the United Kingdom’s International Fund for Ukraine (IFU).

Tekever told Defense News that it will be transferring some of its drones to Kyiv.

IFU is funded by Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. First weapons bought using this fund will start arriving in Ukraine next month. As per a video shared by the British defense ministry, the package includes Malloy T150 quadcopters manufactured by the British company Malloy Aeronautics, the DeltaQuad Pro VTOL drone produced by Dutch firm DeltaQuad, Astero ISR system from Denmark’s Nordic Wing, and drones produced by Lisbon-based Tekever.

A company official confirmed Tekever AR3 systems are among drones being sent to Ukraine. “Yes, our Tekever AR3 system is depicted in the video produced by the UK MoD,” a company representative told Defense News. “It includes images of the drone being deployed with support of a catapult — which we can use for extended endurance operations up to 16 hours — and in an optional VTOL configuration. Each operator can easily choose which variant it wants to use for a specific mission.”

The AR3 is a small, long-endurance drone designed to provide wide-area surveillance for both land and maritime missions. It has a maximum payload capacity of 4 kilograms (9 pounds), can fly at a cruise speed of 75-90 kph (47-56 mph) and can also be recovered via parachute.