ADEX 2024: Azerbaijan's Deftech UAVs take to the skies

Deftech's DT-101 VTOL UAV on display at ADEX with the F-5000 loitering munitions in the background. (Janes/Jeremy Binnie)

The Azerbaijani private company Deftech displayed two versions of its tandem unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the Azerbaijan International Defence Exhibition (ADEX) 2024 show held in Baku from 24 to 26 September, as well as the family of loitering munitions it is developing and videos of most of them being flight tested.

“We've been flying for over a year now with all our products,” Deftech cofounder Anar Iskandarov told Janes . “We are aiming to have a product we can offer to market somewhere in 2025. For mass production we will need to build up manpower, once there is an order.”

The two versions of the tandem wing UAV are the DT-001, which is powered by a 360 cc petrol engine, and the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) DT-101 version, which is the same size but has a smaller 180 cc engine and additional electrical motors driving rotors under each wing.

The video showed a prototype DT-001 taking off from an airfield in Azerbaijan. Iskandarov said it first flew in July 2023 and that the design has since been refined. While the prototype had fixed forward undercarriage, this has now been integrated into new downwards-facing winglets on its front wings. The rear undercarriage is integrated into the horizontal stabiliser at the rear.

Deftech says the DT-001 has a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 75–120 kg, an endurance of 5–10 hours, a cruise speed of 120–130 km/h, and a cruise altitude of 3,000–5,000 m, depending on the mission configuration.