Expodefensa 2025: First Colombian-made Dragom drone debuted for intelligence and precision strike
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Colombia presented its domestically built Dragom reconnaissance and attack drone at Expodefensa 2025 in Bogota, marking the system’s first major defense industry showing. The debut signals a push for greater national autonomy in air defense technology and a potential new regional foothold in unmanned systems.
During Expodefensa 2025 in Bogota, held from 1 to 3 December under the patronage of the Colombian Ministry of National Defense, the state-owned Colombian Aeronautical Industry Corporation (CIAC) is showcasing the Dragom, a guided reconnaissance and attack drone designed and manufactured entirely in Colombia. Officially unveiled in July 2025 at the F-AIR aeronautical fair and presented in detail by the Ministry of Defense, Dragom is the first military unmanned aircraft developed in the country specifically for national security and defense missions. Its presence at Expodefensa places this new tactical system at the center of Latin America’s debates on technological sovereignty, cost control and adaptation to complex operational environments such as jungle, mountainous and border areas. For Colombia, it is a concrete signal that the country intends to rely on its own industrial base to respond to evolving threats and to position itself as a supplier of unmanned solutions to the wider region.
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Colombia used the Expodefensa 2025 stage in Bogota to spotlight its Dragom guided reconnaissance and attack drone, underscoring a broader national push to build autonomous defense technology through its state-owned manufacturer CIAC (Picture Source: Army Recognition Group)
Developed by CIAC as the “Dron de Reconocimiento y Ataque Guiado para Operaciones Militares”, Dragom is a tactical multirotor platform conceived from the outset as a dual-role system for surveillance and precision engagement. The aircraft is a four-rotor UAV with a maximum take-off weight of around 12 kg and a payload capacity of 7.5 kg, offering an endurance of 94 minutes with the standard camera. Its effective control radius is between 9 and 20 km, depending on terrain and atmospheric conditions, in line with CIAC’s stated performance figures. Dragom operates in manual, semi-automatic or fully autonomous modes, enabling operators to program complex routes, execute missions automatically and rely on autonomous take-off and landing functions. Navigation relies on dual-band satellite positioning compatible with BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS and QZSS, complemented by four IMUs ensuring redundant attitude and position data. A dual-encrypted communication channel secures the data link, while the 16-channel remote control with integrated touchscreen, designed to remain readable in direct sunlight, provides intuitive access to all mission functions, including RTK and NTRIP positioning modes for improved accuracy.
On the payload side, Dragom integrates a dual high-definition electro-optical and infrared camera for day and night operations, delivering real-time tactical imagery to commanders for reconnaissance, surveillance, target identification and battle damage assessment. The platform can also carry and release munitions mounted in the lower fuselage, using gravity-drop launchers dimensioned for mortar bombs and other explosive loads produced by the Colombian state-owned company Indumil. CIAC highlights the flexibility of the architecture: depending on the mission, operators may opt for a configuration prioritizing sensors and communications, a mixed load combining observation and attack, or a purely kinetic profile with heavier munitions. Still within the 12 kg take-off limit, the drone can also be adapted for light logistical support, transporting small quantities of supplies or critical components to forward positions where access is constrained by terrain or threat.
For Colombian forces, Dragom is designed as a response to operational realities that range from dense urban environments to remote jungle and mountainous areas, often dominated by irregular armed groups and criminal organizations. The Ministry of Defense explicitly links the system to the need to improve command and control, surveillance, monitoring and the protection of critical infrastructure such as oil pipelines, bridges and electrical transmission towers, while providing tactical support and resupply to units deployed in difficult terrain. The ability to combine persistent airborne surveillance with the option of guided engagement from a compact, easily deployable platform opens up new possibilities for border patrol, coastal monitoring, support to special forces and protection of key sites against sabotage, illegal mining or narcotrafficking activities. At unit level, Dragom offers an intermediate capability between small commercial quadcopters used for immediate situational awareness and larger fixed-wing UAVs dedicated to high-end ISR missions, providing organic intelligence and, when required, the means to neutralize point targets with tailored munitions.
Industrial and budgetary considerations are at the heart of the program. CIAC and the Ministry of Defense underline that Dragom is the result of a 100% Colombian engineering effort, from airframe design to electronics integration and software, relying on national human capital and suppliers. According to CIAC’s management, the drone has been developed to be significantly less expensive to design and produce than foreign multirotor platforms with comparable payload and endurance, with internal estimates pointing to a reduction on the order of one third in acquisition costs. This approach fits into a broader strategy in which CIAC, historically known for aircraft maintenance and the T-90 Calima trainer, has expanded its UAV portfolio with systems such as the Quimbaya and Coelum, and participates in international programs like the SIRTAP medium-altitude ISR drone with Airbus Defence and Space. Dragom thus capitalizes on experience accumulated over nearly a decade in unmanned systems to deliver a product that can be produced and supported domestically, while creating an industrial reference point for future export discussions with regional partners.
Beyond the tactical and industrial dimensions, Dragom carries significant strategic and geopolitical weight. Colombia is confronted with the proliferation of improvised and commercially derived drones in the hands of insurgent and criminal groups, a phenomenon increasingly analyzed as a challenge to state authority in several regions. By fielding a national guided reconnaissance and attack drone, Bogotá not only seeks to close the capability gap with non-state actors, but also to integrate unmanned systems into a coherent doctrine of territorial control, border security and protection of strategic resources. Demonstrating Dragom at Expodefensa 2025, a major Latin American forum for security and defense technologies, positions Colombia as a provider of indigenous UAV solutions tailored to the region’s specific environments, at a time when many countries are looking for alternatives to traditional suppliers and for systems that can be adapted to their own topography and threat landscape. As drone warfare expands from large-scale conflicts to internal security and transnational crime, the Dragom program illustrates how a middle-power country can use its defense industry as a lever to reinforce technological autonomy and to shape the regional conversation on responsible and effective use of unmanned systems.
By bringing Dragom to the forefront at Expodefensa 2025, Colombia is sending a clear signal: the country intends to confront its security challenges with tools designed on its own terms, by its own engineers, and optimized for its own terrain rather than imported as a generic solution. If the planned acquisitions by the Army, Navy and Air Force materialize after the additional trials and upgrades requested by the services, Dragom is likely to become one of the emblematic systems of Colombia’s modernization effort and a reference point for other Latin American forces looking for compact yet versatile drones. In a regional market where unmanned platforms are increasingly central to both deterrence and day-to-day security operations, the Colombian-built Dragom stands as a concrete example of how national industry, when supported by consistent political will, can transform specific operational needs into a sovereign capability with export potential.
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Colombia presented its domestically built Dragom reconnaissance and attack drone at Expodefensa 2025 in Bogota, marking the system’s first major defense industry showing. The debut signals a push for greater national autonomy in air defense technology and a potential new regional foothold in unmanned systems.
During Expodefensa 2025 in Bogota, held from 1 to 3 December under the patronage of the Colombian Ministry of National Defense, the state-owned Colombian Aeronautical Industry Corporation (CIAC) is showcasing the Dragom, a guided reconnaissance and attack drone designed and manufactured entirely in Colombia. Officially unveiled in July 2025 at the F-AIR aeronautical fair and presented in detail by the Ministry of Defense, Dragom is the first military unmanned aircraft developed in the country specifically for national security and defense missions. Its presence at Expodefensa places this new tactical system at the center of Latin America’s debates on technological sovereignty, cost control and adaptation to complex operational environments such as jungle, mountainous and border areas. For Colombia, it is a concrete signal that the country intends to rely on its own industrial base to respond to evolving threats and to position itself as a supplier of unmanned solutions to the wider region.
Colombia used the Expodefensa 2025 stage in Bogota to spotlight its Dragom guided reconnaissance and attack drone, underscoring a broader national push to build autonomous defense technology through its state-owned manufacturer CIAC (Picture Source: Army Recognition Group)
Developed by CIAC as the “Dron de Reconocimiento y Ataque Guiado para Operaciones Militares”, Dragom is a tactical multirotor platform conceived from the outset as a dual-role system for surveillance and precision engagement. The aircraft is a four-rotor UAV with a maximum take-off weight of around 12 kg and a payload capacity of 7.5 kg, offering an endurance of 94 minutes with the standard camera. Its effective control radius is between 9 and 20 km, depending on terrain and atmospheric conditions, in line with CIAC’s stated performance figures. Dragom operates in manual, semi-automatic or fully autonomous modes, enabling operators to program complex routes, execute missions automatically and rely on autonomous take-off and landing functions. Navigation relies on dual-band satellite positioning compatible with BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS and QZSS, complemented by four IMUs ensuring redundant attitude and position data. A dual-encrypted communication channel secures the data link, while the 16-channel remote control with integrated touchscreen, designed to remain readable in direct sunlight, provides intuitive access to all mission functions, including RTK and NTRIP positioning modes for improved accuracy.
On the payload side, Dragom integrates a dual high-definition electro-optical and infrared camera for day and night operations, delivering real-time tactical imagery to commanders for reconnaissance, surveillance, target identification and battle damage assessment. The platform can also carry and release munitions mounted in the lower fuselage, using gravity-drop launchers dimensioned for mortar bombs and other explosive loads produced by the Colombian state-owned company Indumil. CIAC highlights the flexibility of the architecture: depending on the mission, operators may opt for a configuration prioritizing sensors and communications, a mixed load combining observation and attack, or a purely kinetic profile with heavier munitions. Still within the 12 kg take-off limit, the drone can also be adapted for light logistical support, transporting small quantities of supplies or critical components to forward positions where access is constrained by terrain or threat.
For Colombian forces, Dragom is designed as a response to operational realities that range from dense urban environments to remote jungle and mountainous areas, often dominated by irregular armed groups and criminal organizations. The Ministry of Defense explicitly links the system to the need to improve command and control, surveillance, monitoring and the protection of critical infrastructure such as oil pipelines, bridges and electrical transmission towers, while providing tactical support and resupply to units deployed in difficult terrain. The ability to combine persistent airborne surveillance with the option of guided engagement from a compact, easily deployable platform opens up new possibilities for border patrol, coastal monitoring, support to special forces and protection of key sites against sabotage, illegal mining or narcotrafficking activities. At unit level, Dragom offers an intermediate capability between small commercial quadcopters used for immediate situational awareness and larger fixed-wing UAVs dedicated to high-end ISR missions, providing organic intelligence and, when required, the means to neutralize point targets with tailored munitions.
Industrial and budgetary considerations are at the heart of the program. CIAC and the Ministry of Defense underline that Dragom is the result of a 100% Colombian engineering effort, from airframe design to electronics integration and software, relying on national human capital and suppliers. According to CIAC’s management, the drone has been developed to be significantly less expensive to design and produce than foreign multirotor platforms with comparable payload and endurance, with internal estimates pointing to a reduction on the order of one third in acquisition costs. This approach fits into a broader strategy in which CIAC, historically known for aircraft maintenance and the T-90 Calima trainer, has expanded its UAV portfolio with systems such as the Quimbaya and Coelum, and participates in international programs like the SIRTAP medium-altitude ISR drone with Airbus Defence and Space. Dragom thus capitalizes on experience accumulated over nearly a decade in unmanned systems to deliver a product that can be produced and supported domestically, while creating an industrial reference point for future export discussions with regional partners.
Beyond the tactical and industrial dimensions, Dragom carries significant strategic and geopolitical weight. Colombia is confronted with the proliferation of improvised and commercially derived drones in the hands of insurgent and criminal groups, a phenomenon increasingly analyzed as a challenge to state authority in several regions. By fielding a national guided reconnaissance and attack drone, Bogotá not only seeks to close the capability gap with non-state actors, but also to integrate unmanned systems into a coherent doctrine of territorial control, border security and protection of strategic resources. Demonstrating Dragom at Expodefensa 2025, a major Latin American forum for security and defense technologies, positions Colombia as a provider of indigenous UAV solutions tailored to the region’s specific environments, at a time when many countries are looking for alternatives to traditional suppliers and for systems that can be adapted to their own topography and threat landscape. As drone warfare expands from large-scale conflicts to internal security and transnational crime, the Dragom program illustrates how a middle-power country can use its defense industry as a lever to reinforce technological autonomy and to shape the regional conversation on responsible and effective use of unmanned systems.
By bringing Dragom to the forefront at Expodefensa 2025, Colombia is sending a clear signal: the country intends to confront its security challenges with tools designed on its own terms, by its own engineers, and optimized for its own terrain rather than imported as a generic solution. If the planned acquisitions by the Army, Navy and Air Force materialize after the additional trials and upgrades requested by the services, Dragom is likely to become one of the emblematic systems of Colombia’s modernization effort and a reference point for other Latin American forces looking for compact yet versatile drones. In a regional market where unmanned platforms are increasingly central to both deterrence and day-to-day security operations, the Colombian-built Dragom stands as a concrete example of how national industry, when supported by consistent political will, can transform specific operational needs into a sovereign capability with export potential.
