L3Harris, Turkish firm Skydagger to establish US co-production of FPV interceptors
PARIS — L3Harris today signed an agreement with Turkish drone manufacturer Skydagger to establish co-production of first-person-view drone interceptors in the US for integration into the American firm’s Vampire counter-drone system.
The two companies signed the memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of the Eurosatory trade show, where counter-drone capabilities have emerged as a major topic of interest.
Under the framework, there will be a transfer of expertise and technology that will allow localized manufacturing of the Turkish-designed FPV interceptors, L3Harris’s Mike Spina, told Breaking Defense.
“We aim to complete the integration of the new capabilities [on the VAMPIRE C-UxS system] this year,” said Spina, L3Harris’ head of business development for target and sensor systems. This will be the first time the counter-drone system is equipped with interceptor drones.
The Vampire, showcased for the first time at Eurosatory, is what the company calls a “completely self-contained, low-cost, multi-mission, precision-guided weapons platform” designed to provide military forces with reconnaissance and precision-strike capabilities against drones. The company advertises the platform on its website as capable of firing a missile, but says it “can fire a variety of effectors.”
It has logged over 350,000 operational hours since 2023 and was selected by the US Army last week as part of Washington’s layered counter-drone defense approach in an order valued at $106 million, according to company information.
Earlier this year, L3Harris launched a new production line for the counter-drone system in Huntsville, Ala., to meet higher demand as a “direct response to the US and its allies” need to combat widespread drone threats, it said in a press release.
Skydagger, meanwhile, makes several variants of drone including the Hunter interceptor, which the company says weighs just more than 1 pound and can fly up to nearly 200 miles per hour. The company can currently produce 50,000 FPV interceptors per year, according to Spina.
Spina said that the company’s focus with this new capability will be to defeat Group 2 and 3 drones, that is, small- to medium-sized ones, and will include drone-on-drone interception.
The company forecasts that demand for FPV drones will reach $5.8 billion by 2032.
L3Harris signed an agreement with Turkish firm Skydagger in Paris to co-produce first-person-view drone interceptors in the US. This initiative aims to integrate the interceptors into L3Harris's Vampire counter-drone system, marking the first time the system will utilize interceptor drones. The production capacity is set at 50,000 units per year, responding to increasing demand for counter-drone capabilities.
- L3Harris signed an agreement with Skydagger for co-production of FPV interceptors in the US.
- The Vampire counter-drone system will be equipped with interceptor drones for the first time.
- Skydagger can produce 50,000 FPV interceptors per year.
- The demand for FPV drones is forecasted to reach $5.8 billion by 2032.
- L3Harris launched a new production line in Huntsville, Alabama, to meet demand.