At the end of February 2025, the American company Teledyne FLIR announced that it had received a contract from the Bundeswehr to supply the German army with its Black Hornet 4 reconnaissance nano UAVs – the implementation of the concluded agreement will last two years.
Some details about this agreement were published by the Zona Militar publication, which spoke with Nils Haagerund, Senior Director UAS – US Programs at Teledyne FLIR Defense. The Teledyne FLIR representative, among other things, also spoke about his vision of the future family of Black Hornet drones, which are also in service with the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
Regarding the contract for the supply of drones to the Bundeswehr, Nils Haagenrud noted that it involves hundreds of drones and emphasized how important and large this contract is for the company in view of further plans to conclude subsequent agreements after Germany begins deploying these drones to the troops (planned for the third-fourth quarter of this year). The German army also has experience operating the previous, third version of this drone.
One of the questions to Nils Haagenrud was how he sees the future of the fourth version of the drone and whether the company is considering the possibility of developing a fifth iteration of this type of weapon. Answering this question, a Teledyne FLIR Defense representative noted that they are currently focusing on expanding the nano drone’s software capabilities. “We are learning a lot from Ukraine, like target locking, scan patterns, and radio silent missions,” he stated.
Haagenrud emphasized that the new version of the Black Hornet 4 drone uses the latest technologies. From his words it follows that the fifth version of the drone is likely to go into operation “in five to seven years”, given that the fourth version will not lose its relevance in the coming years.
Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Senior Director UAS – US Programs also noted that the Black Hornet 4 has been in development for “almost eight years” – let us recall that the fourth version was officially presented in October 2023. In the fourth version, the nano UAV has become heavier, but in return it has received a number of improvements – a new camera, a thermal imager, greater wind resistance and speed.
As of today, more than 45 countries are operators of drones from Teledyne FLIR, and a total of more than 33 thousand Black Hornet nano UAVs have been delivered.
As News Hub reported, Ukrainian Special Forces Used the Black Hornet Nano Drone for Reconnaissance in the Kursk Region