In February, Sweden’s CybAero announced that it had received an order for unmanned helicopter systems to be delivered to an unnamed end-user in China. The company has now revealed that this end user is in fact China Customs, and the purchased systems will be used for various tasks such as customs control, port management, and to counter smuggling.
In January, the company received an order from Jolly Limited (Hong Kong) and the Chinese shipbuilder CSSC (China State Shipbuilding Corporation) for unmanned helicopter systems to be used by China Customs and at the end of February, the company also received a licence to export from the Swedish Export Agency ISP.
China Customs will use CybAero’s unmanned helicopter APID 60 from ships.
“We are extremely excited about the high confidence received from the customer”, says Mikael Hult, CEO of CybAero AB.
First Order from China
The Chinese order is very important for CybAero in several aspects.
“This is a milestone for us. It is our first order from China, an extremely fast growing market with large sea areas to be monitored”, says Mikael Hult, CEO CybAero.
Strong interest from Asia
CybAero’s unmanned helicopter has received considerable global attention due to the fact that it is highly durable and cost effective. It has a range of 200 km and a flight time of six hours. The order for the Chinese customs is the result of many years of work within the Asian market.
“We have received this order in strong competition with both domestic and global leaders. This is an important customer with great future development plans, and we look at this as the start of a long-term cooperation”, says Niklas Nyroth, Sales and Marketing at CybAero.
The order is a large leap for CybAero into the extensive Asian market.
“This project is for China Customs, and we see great opportunities for further orders from this particular customer”, says Niklas Nyroth.
“The project is also an important reference for the entire market in Asia. Several countries in this region view China as a technology development leader, and when a Chinese customer has decided to invest in our unmanned system, so will other clients with similar needs”, says Niklas Nyroth.