Greece to produce custom swarm drones for warfare

The University of Thessaloniki (AUT) in Greece will take part in a once in a lifetime program to build the county’s own custom swarm-capable drones as a part of Project Lotus. The drones will predominantly be used in surveillance and intelligence missions.

Project Lotus is being co-ordinated by Greek defense company Intracom Defense and will include other Greek companies including, Cypriot, Spanish, and Dutch companies. The construction of the drones is set to happen in Greece and the drone will be constructed with over 80% Greek parts.

Kyriakos Yakinthos, professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering shared the following on how the drones will be built during an interview with the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.

“We at AUT will design the specific drone, which will have innovations that were evaluated very positively by the EU. While at the University of Patras, they will design the so-called Swarm Management Algorithms.”

Yakinthos goes onto share that there will be two types of drones produced in Project Lotus, the larger mothership drone which will store and deploy the smaller drones which will do the swarming. Greece will use the drones for surveillance missions and humanitarian missions and say the drone will eventually be for sale for third parties and other countries interested in using the technology.

As a part of the agreement, the University of Thessaloniki (AUT) will receive royalties for each drone that is built which will go towards providing the university with upgraded equipment and more rooms.

Drone swarms

While most think of drone swarms and drones that blow themselves up upon impact when it comes to the army, we have actually been using them in the entertainment business for the last few years in the form of drone light shows. These friendly drone swarms have lit up the Super Bowl, Britain’s Got Talent, and have even thanked the frontline workers in the COVID-19 pandemic.

• First-ever live drone light show during Super Bowl LIII
• Magical drones make an appearance on Britain’s Got Talent
• 300 drones put on light show to thank China medical staff

Photo: Greek City Times