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Expodefensa 2025: Chinese Hunter Pro FPV jammer strengthens layered protection against small drones.
Skyfend introduced its Hunter Pro portable counter drone system at Expodefensa 2025 in Bogotá, highlighting its ability to detect FPV links, intercept video, and jam hostile signals. The debut signals growing Chinese interest in the Latin American security market and reflects regional demand for affordable tools to counter small drones.
During Expo Defensa 2025, held in Bogotá, Chinese company Skyfend presented its Hunter Pro counter-drone system to the Latin American market for the first time. The unveiling comes as regional armed forces and security services face a rapid spread of low-cost FPV drones used by both state and non-state actors. By combining FPV signal detection, video interception and jamming in a single portable device, this Chinese system offers a new tool against small, hard-to-detect drones and marks the entry of Beijing’s counter-UAS industry into a sensitive segment of the Latin American market.
The arrival of Skyfend Hunter Pro at Expo Defensa 2025 illustrates how rapidly FPV drones have evolved from a tactical curiosity into a daily operational concern for Latin American security actors (Picture Source: Army Recognition)
At the core of the system, Skyfend Hunter Pro is a shoulder-carried device dedicated to First-Person-View drones, integrating in one housing both a receiver for control and video links and a high-power jammer. The unit detects FPV control and video transmissions, alerts the operator and can disrupt those links to force the drone into loss of control or to abort its mission. An integrated FPV reception module can capture analogue feeds commonly used in FPV drones, allowing security teams to see what the hostile pilot sees in real time and adjust their response accordingly. The jamming module covers a wide radiofrequency spectrum with significant output power, using software-defined waveforms and directional antennas to concentrate energy on the target while reducing interference with surrounding communications.
To extend protection beyond the immediate range of the portable jammer, the Hunter Pro can be integrated into Skyfend’s fixed-site detection architecture, exemplified by the Spotter SKP100 radar-electro-optical head. This mast-mounted sensor, weighing under 30 kg, detects drones at distances on the order of 1.2 km and vehicles at around 4 km, with 360° azimuth coverage and elevation from the horizon to the zenith, providing full-dome surveillance over compounds or critical facilities. A K-band electronically scanned radar using FMCW waveforms tracks more than one hundred targets simultaneously and refreshes their position several times per second, delivering precise range, speed and direction data to the operator. Coupled with a full-HD daylight zoom camera, an uncooled thermal imager and an AI processing unit rated in the tens of TOPS, the system classifies drones with high confidence while filtering out birds, people and vehicles, and remains operational in harsh weather conditions thanks to its IP66 protection rating.
For Latin American security forces, the combination of portable jammers such as Hunter Pro with 24/7 fixed sensors like the Spotter SKP100 points towards a layered airspace protection concept for stadiums, refineries, border posts, prisons and government buildings. Instead of reacting only when a drone is visually spotted overhead, operators can receive early warning from the radar-electro-optical network, analyse the drone’s trajectory and then deploy a Hunter Pro team to interrupt its control link at the most favourable moment. This layered approach is particularly relevant in dense urban environments such as Bogotá or Mexico City, where vertical infrastructure and a congested radiofrequency environment complicate traditional air surveillance. By combining RF sensing, radar, optical tracking and focused jamming, Skyfend proposes a way to manage the FPV threat while limiting the use of kinetic effectors above populated areas.
Beyond the technical aspects, the presentation of Hunter Pro at Expodefensa carries clear geostrategic implications. China has steadily increased its presence in Latin American defence markets through the supply of UAVs, armoured vehicles and communications equipment, and the arrival of Chinese counter-drone solutions represents a logical continuation of this trend. For regional governments, adopting Chinese C-UAS technology may open access to advanced capabilities at competitive cost, but also raises sensitive questions regarding data governance, interoperability with Western-made command systems and long-term sustainment. Decisions to procure systems such as Hunter Pro are therefore not purely technical; they form part of a broader balancing act between US, European and Chinese suppliers, with implications for defence partnerships and industrial cooperation.
The arrival of Skyfend Hunter Pro at Expo Defensa 2025 illustrates how rapidly FPV drones have evolved from a tactical curiosity into a daily operational concern for Latin American security actors. By presenting a portable FPV-focused jammer that can be integrated into radar-optical detection networks like the SKP100, China signals its intent to influence how the region secures its low-altitude airspace. Whether selected for border surveillance, the protection of energy infrastructure or the security of major events, systems of this type show that counter-drone capability has become a fundamental layer of force protection. Latin American decision-makers will now have to assess this new Chinese option, not only in terms of performance, but also in light of the strategic choices it implies for the future architecture of their defence and internal security systems.