Garuda Aerospace – Signs Contract with Airbus Helicopters for Flexrotor Drone Systems

Expert Analysis:

• Garuda Aerospace has signed a contract with Airbus Helicopters to acquire up to 18 Flexrotor uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) as part of its strategy to expand its global drone leasing and services portfolio.

• The Flexrotor drones will be integrated into Garuda’s fleet and offered through dry-lease and wet-lease operational models, enabling customers to deploy high-endurance drone systems for multiple industrial and public-sector applications.

• The platform supports a wide range of missions including infrastructure inspection, oil & gas pipeline monitoring, powerline inspection, railway and highway surveillance, disaster response, wildfire monitoring, law enforcement, and search-and-rescue operations.

• The Flexrotor system is designed for long-endurance missions of about 12–14 hours, with a maximum take-off weight of around 25 kg, and can autonomously launch and recover from confined areas of roughly 3.7 m × 3.7 m, allowing deployment from land or maritime platforms.