Alta Ares Adapts Interceptor Drones for Middle East Conditions With Ukrainian Engineering Input

The French company Alta Ares had to modify its interceptor drones for operations in the Middle East, as they were unable to withstand high temperatures and desert conditions.

Alta Ares CEO Hadrien Canter stated this at the VivaTech technology forum in Paris.

According to him, when the company began deploying its interceptors in the Middle East, they did not function properly.

One of the problems was sand entering the engines. Another issue was the combination of high temperatures and the drones’ black bodies, which led to overheating of onboard electronics.

“My engineering team has a big hub of Ukrainian engineers in Ukraine, and they really push our French engineers, who have a more relaxed life and don’t have the same sense of urgency,” the CEO shared.

Thanks to the experience of the Ukrainian part of the company’s team, it was possible to change the entire material specification and drone structure on-site within 10 days to improve cooling efficiency.

“And this is very similar to what we call ‘Ukrainian speed.’ I actually had to get my Ukrainian engineers to explain it to them. I think the client, the military there, was amazed at what we were able to do in less than two weeks: adapt something that worked in Ukraine to something that didn’t work in the Middle East, and after 10 days it was working,” he emphasized.

In addition, Hadrien Canter stressed that, in his view, military procurement must move away from the paradigm of spending years developing a perfect product toward rapid development of “good enough” systems.

“I believe that we need to create products that are ‘good enough.’ Usually, in the defense industry, you are required to create a perfect product that takes years and years of development. And now, in my opinion, it is better to have something 80% ready in a few weeks than something 99% ready after years. Therefore, I believe speed is a key factor, and you have to strike a balance between speed and reliability. Of course, the safety of personnel always comes first; we will never sacrifice this, but I always tell my engineers: ‘Friends, the truth is in the field,’ he emphasized.

Militarnyi recently reported that Alta Ares, in cooperation with the Ukrainian company LATEK, plans to establish production of new interceptor drones in Ukraine. This was shared with Militarnyi by Oleksandr Popov, owner of LATEK.

LATEK is already cooperating with Alta Ares and assisting with equipment necessary for drone production.

“We have a cooperation agreement, and in the future we plan to expand it and produce their products in Ukraine. We are not manufacturing drones yet, as their models are still at the development stage,” Popov noted.

It is known that Alta Ares, together with Ukrainian engineers, is developing two interceptor drone models: the multicopter X-LOCK and the jet-powered BLACK BIRD.