The partnerships keep coming on both sides of the pond. This morning, Harmattan AI, the white-hot French autonomous systems startup launched last year, announced a partnership with Ukrainian drone-maker Skyeton to integrate its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system on Skyeton’s Raybird ISR drone.
Oui oui, indeed.
Doing deals: In its first year of existence, Harmattan AI has already secured two big-time programs of record—one with the UK for 3,000 drones and the other with an undisclosed “large NATO country” for more than $10M.
While their big contract wins so far have focused on their drone offerings, the company is building autonomous systems of all flavors. Those include:
- Sonora: A cheap, training-focused drone built to simulate ISR operations.
- Gobi: A high-speed UAV designed to intercept other hostile, small drones.
- Sahara: A UAV-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system engineered to be integrated into Group 2 drones. Sahara corrects and refines SAR imagery onboard drones to produce high-resolution radar images without external processing.
Harmattan has also developed its own state-of-the-art AI-powered autonomy suite, which it’s looking to integrate into everything from maritime to land-based autonomous systems.
Sky high: In their partnership with Ukraine’s Skyeton, Harmattan will put its Sahara SAR system on Skyeton’s flagship Raybird drone. Skyeton isn’t new to the drone game—the Ukrainian company has been building ultralight aircraft since 2006 and, according to company specs, the Raybird is a bit of a beast.
- It has a 14-foot max wingspan, a maximum range of 1,553 miles, and a maximum altitude of 18,044 feet.
- It has over 28 hours of endurance and is EW-resistant, works without GPS, and survives over 90 percent of missions.
- Most importantly, it’s super combat-proven and widely adopted by Ukrainian defense forces, with over 350,000 combat flight hours to its name.
“With the Raybird surpassing 350,000 combat hours, Skyeton is by far the most reliable partner for medium-range reconnaissance,” Harmattan founder and CEO Mouad M’Ghari told Tectonic. “Now, with AI-enabled sensors previously exclusive to large platforms, it becomes a uniquely powerful platform.”
M’Ghari added that Harmattan is “tightly integrating Sahara into the Raybird and developing AI interpretation of SAR imaging to provide complementary ISR capabilities,” with the first units expected to be deployed and operational by the first quarter of next year.
French flyers: Those units, according to M’Ghari, will be first deployed with the French MoD. He declined to reveal the number of Sahara-enabled Raybirds the French military is getting its hands on (or the contract figures) but said it’s a “large-scale delivery.”
“This collaboration demonstrates our commitment to working hand-in-hand with trusted allies,” Skyeton CEO Pavlo Shevchuk said in a statement. “By joining forces with Harmattan AI, we are reinforcing Europe’s defense capabilities and accelerating the Raybird’s adoption in key NATO markets such as France.”
Money moves: With another big NATO order under Harmattan’s belt, investors are taking notice. Harmattan raised an undisclosed round with participation from Atlantic Labs, Financière Saint James, and others back in February, and on Wednesday, Sifted reported that the company is eyeing a billion-dollar valuation in its latest funding round.
Harmattan declined to confirm the raise or the big-time numbers, but it sure looks like the company is well on its way to becoming the “next-generation defense prime” it claims to be.