UAE Orders 168 Unmanned Helicopters to Expand Autonomous Battlefield Operations.

The EDGE Group announced on 22 January 2026 that the UAE Ministry of Defence has ordered 168 ANAVIA unmanned helicopters, including HT-100 ISR platforms and HT-750 logistics systems. The deal highlights a strategic shift toward persistent unmanned presence and autonomous lift, capabilities that fixed-wing drones and manned helicopters cannot efficiently sustain.

EDGE Group’s announcement on 22 January 2026 that the UAE Ministry of Defence has ordered 168 ANAVIA rotary-wing unmanned aircraft marks a step change in how Abu Dhabi intends to use drones, shifting unmanned helicopters from a niche capability into a fleet-level instrument of national defense. The package, unveiled during UMEX and SimTEX 2026 in Abu Dhabi, covers 76 HT-100 aircraft configured for intelligence and data-gathering missions and 92 larger HT-750 systems optimized for logistics. In sheer volume, it is a globally significant procurement for autonomous rotorcraft, and the message is clear: the UAE is investing in persistent, distributed airborne presence and unmanned lift capacity that can be scaled daily across land and sea, rather than reserved for special operations or one-off trials.
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ANAVIA HT-100 and HT-750 unmanned helicopters provide the UAE with persistent ISR, secure long-range data links, and autonomous logistics lift, combining multi-sensor intelligence collection, maritime and desert operations, and unmanned resupply of remote outposts and ships, while reducing risk to aircrews and expanding round-the-clock operational reach (Picture source: EDGE). 

The HT-100 is best understood as a compact, high-payload aerial sensor truck that can live close to the fight. Its European-designed airframe uses a Flettner dual intermeshing rotor system, eliminating the tail rotor and shrinking the deck footprint while improving control authority in gusty coastal winds and tight landing zones. In ANAVIA documentation, the platform’s maximum take-off weight is 120 kg, with a payload and fuel figure of 65 kg, a maximum flight time of 6 hours, and a maximum airspeed of 120 km/h. Power comes from a 15 kW shaft-turbine burning Jet A-1, with JP-8 and JP-5 listed as alternatives, and fuel consumption is quoted at 9 liters per hour, a detail that matters for sustained desert and maritime patrol cycles.

What makes the HT-100 tactically disruptive is not a single headline number, but the way its architecture supports persistent sensing under real-world electronic and weather stress. The aircraft is specified with fully encrypted mesh IP data links and options for LTE and SATCOM, with terrestrial radio configurations cited up to 200 km depending on terrain and national regulations. ANAVIA also markets a maximum mission range of 600 km while still carrying a 23 kg payload, underscoring that the system is designed to push sensors forward without forcing a manned helicopter to loiter inside the threat ring. That combination enables classic UAE requirements: border and coastline monitoring, offshore infrastructure overwatch, and rapid cueing for patrol craft or ground quick reaction forces using EO/IR gimbals, LIDAR, or specialist packages such as COMINT, SIGINT, and ELINT that are explicitly referenced in the HT-100 brochure.

The HT-750, by contrast, is a strategic logistics lever disguised as an unmanned helicopter. ANAVIA positions it for missions traditionally conducted by manned helicopters, and the published figures support that ambition: 1,150 kg maximum take-off weight, 750 kg allocated to payload and fuel, 15 hours maximum flight time, and up to 222 km/h. Critically, the brochure cites a 2,500 km flight mission distance when carrying a 50 kg payload, enabled by 900-liter fuel tanks and a high-efficiency turbine consuming around 60 liters per hour. In safety terms, the aircraft incorporates a Hybrid Assistant System that can provide autonomous electric rotor power during turbine power loss, and it is marketed as maritime-ready with autonomous deck landing, NATO grid harpoon securing, and optional emergency flotation devices.

From a payload integration perspective, the HT-750 reads like a modular mission bay rather than a single-role lifter. ANAVIA lists a plug-and-play payload avionics bus and explicitly names sensor families commonly used for military ISR, including Wescam MX10 and Trakka systems, alongside wide-area motion imagery options, plus logistics modules such as cooled cargo boxes, skyhook systems with 70 m rope and net, and remote drop mechanisms. Reporting from defense exhibitions adds technical color, citing a conventional tail-rotor helicopter configuration with a 7.5 m main rotor and a gas turboshaft in the 230 shp continuous class, rising to 250 shp for takeoff. The implication for UAE planners is straightforward: routine unmanned resupply to remote desert outposts, island facilities, or ships at sea, without paying the operational and political cost of exposing crews to air-defense ambush or small-arms fire.

For the UAE, the requirement is less about having drones and more about closing two stubborn gaps that fixed-wing systems do not solve well: hovering persistence over a point of interest and point-to-point lift into austere spaces. Abu Dhabi already fields MALE-class fixed-wing drones and has displayed types understood to include Wing Loong II and Bayraktar TB2, which excel at wide-area ISR and strike but need runways and do not naturally support shipboard vertical replenishment. Rotary-wing UAS also extend capabilities beyond what the UAE’s earlier unmanned helicopter baseline, the Schiebel S-100 CAMCOPTER, typically provides. The S-100 is proven and widely used, with a range out to 200 km and endurance typically exceeding six hours depending on payload and fuel configuration, but the HT-100 pushes sensor payload flexibility and ranges advertised well beyond that 200 km class, while the HT-750 moves the UAE into a heavy-lift bracket that few regional militaries can match today.

Regionally, the comparison is stark: Israel’s Steadicopter Black Eagle 50H sits in the light tactical category with about 12 kg payload capacity and endurance around five hours, well-suited for patrol craft and battalion ISR but not a logistics workhorse. Turkey’s Titra ALPiN, cited with around 200 kg payload including fuel and endurance above nine hours in some configurations, points to where regional competitors are heading, yet it still operates far below the HT-750’s published 750 kg payload and 15-hour endurance envelope. Even the U.S. Navy’s MQ-8C Fire Scout, a benchmark naval unmanned helicopter, is published with a 150 nautical mile range and payload capacity over 700 pounds, emphasizing ISR and targeting more than heavy lift. The UAE’s order, therefore, looks less like incremental modernization and more like an attempt to industrialize unmanned helicopter operations at scale: a fleet sized not for demonstrations, but for persistent coverage, surge logistics, and a manned aviation force structure that can be preserved for the highest-risk sorties.