LONDON — U.S.-based sensor specialist Teledyne Flir has unveiled a drone-in-a-box setup for launching and recovering fast-flying drones from moving ground or maritime platforms, catering to evolving battlefield demands seen in conflicts like Ukraine.

Dubbed the SkyCarrier, the platform is designed to unleash unmanned aerial systems from boats or pick-up trucks – with optional tethering, a concept gaining traction following its widespread use in Ukraine.

It is capable of autonomously deploying and retrieving the company’s SkyRaider R80D and SkyRanger R70 drones while moving at speeds of up to 50 km/h.

“We specifically designed this system for moving operations on land or at sea – most of our customers do not have the luxury to come to a standstill to launch or recover drones, so the quicker they can move, the safer they are,” Rich Cunha, UAS product director at Teledyne, said in an interview.

After flying a mission, the envisioned drones are designed to navigate back to the launch platform independently.

The system can be optionally tethered, meaning that it can operate with a physical cable connecting the drone to a power and data source, which enables it to considerably extend the operational time to two days at altitudes up to 100 meters.

Last year, the Canadian government provided over 800 SkyRanger R70 drones to Ukraine, a donation valued at over $95 million. Since then, Cunha says, the company has collaborated closely with Ukrainian partners to develop more advanced features and configurations.

“A lot of the work we’ve done with Ukraine is around what kind of tweaking the drones themselves need to be more successful on the battlefield and educating them on how they can take some of the tools we have to build their own capabilities into our platforms,” he said. “We support them adding their own radios, sensors or software onboard our aircraft to customize them.”

Two features were of particular interest during testing in Ukraine. First, the ability for a drone to operate in radio-silent mode — conducting scouting missions without transmitting data or receiving commands, and reporting its findings only after return. Second, the value of tethered operations, even with a 100-meter ceiling restriction.

While Teledyne currently does not have near-term plans to send the new platform to Ukraine, the representative said that such an opportunity may come in the future.