Portugal to hand Ukraine Tekever AR3 drones
Defence News has reported that Portuguese manufacturer Tekever will hand over Tekever AR3 drones to Ukraine.
Here's What We Know
Earlier, the UK Ministry of Defence published a video on social media showing military equipment financed by the UK's International Foundation for Ukraine (IFU). Deliveries under this fund are funded by the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Lithuania and Sweden.
The International Fund for Ukraine is supplying critical capabilities for Ukraine, with deliveries from the first procurement round due next month.
- Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) June 14, 2023
Yesterday we announced a £92m air defence package, to be provided through the second procurement round: https://t.co/wipYETa8Ur pic.twitter.com/XOvX1yJ1qa
This video shows a Malloy T150 quadcopter from UK-based Malloy Aeronautics, a DeltaQuad Pro vertical takeoff and landing drone from Dutch firm DeltaQuad, and an ISR Astero system from Danish Nordic Wing. Two other unspecified drone models can be seen in the footage, one of which takes off vertically and is launched using a catapult.
The UK Ministry of Defence declined to comment on specific models of equipment. However, Defence News journalists contacted Tekever representatives and they confirmed that they would transfer the Tekever AR3 UAV to Ukraine through a British foundation: "Yes, our Tekever AR3 system is depicted in the video produced by the UK MoD. 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".
Tekever CEO and founder Ricardo Mendes added that the company is "very proud to support Ukraine and thankful to the UK MoD and IFU for allowing us to contribute to one of the most important causes of our lifetime".
The AR3 is a small, long-life drone designed to provide large area surveillance for both land and maritime missions. It has a maximum payload of 4kg, can fly at a cruising speed of 75-90km/h and can also be lifted using a parachute.
Source: Defence News
Image: Tekever
