Friday, October 18, the Ministry of Defense of the Netherlands officially announced that a Dutch company will supply Ukraine with the latest reconnaissance drones, the contract value is €42.6 million. The official statement names the contractor, DeltaQuad, but holds on to specifics regarding the type of drone, quantity, or deadlines of delivery for security reasons.
As noted, this marks the first contract awarded as part of the so-called Drone Action Plan announced earlier this month by defense minister Ruben Brekelmans, with a total pool of 400 million euros for the supply of various types of drones to Ukraine, from reconnaissance UAVs to loitering munitions, etc. As per the terms of this initiative, half of the products will be manufactured by local companies.
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Breckelmans stressed that the commissioning of drones from DeltaQuad company is an important step in the further implementation of this Drone Action Plan and will be useful both for Ukraine and for the defense-industrial complex of the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, DeltaQuad CEO Sander Smeets noted that their drones are designed and tested to "perform well in difficult and changing conditions."
The Ukrainian forces are already acquainted with drones from DeltaQuad. Particularly, one of the Dutch drones was seen in footage filmed by Ukrainians back in August 2022.
Besides the Netherlands, the UK Ministry of Defense also announced a donation of DeltaQuad Pro VTOL drones to the Ukrainian military in 2023.
At present, DeltaQuad's official website presents two types of drones: one is the DeltaQuad Pro (2017), which has been supplied to Ukraine previously and exists in two variants, for reconnaissance and transport missions. It can travel at distances of up to 100 km and stay in the air for 110 minutes while carrying a payload of 1.2 kg. It takes two minutes to prepare the DeltaQuad Pro to launch.
Another variant is the DeltaQuad Evo (introduced in 2024), or rather its Tactical version, which has an operational range of 246 km and endue over 4 hours of continuous flight. The payload capacity is 3 kg.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that the Netherlands had ordered additional Dita self-propelled guns and ammunition for €271 million for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
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