MSPO 2025: DefendTex Drone 40 highlights tactical flexibility with ISR and strike payloads
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At MSPO 2025 in Kielce, Poland, DefendTex, Australian company, unveiled the Drone 40 system, highlighting its versatility and modular payloads designed for the realities of modern combat. In an exhibition that placed unmanned aerial systems at the center of defense innovation, the Drone 40 stood out by demonstrating how a single platform can deliver reconnaissance, electronic support, and kinetic effects with a simple change of payload. This adaptability directly responds to the growing demands of conflicts such as Ukraine, where drones have become indispensable assets.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The presentation of the Drone 40 at MSPO 2025 illustrates how DefendTex is shaping the evolution of tactical drones. By offering a single platform with a spectrum of interchangeable warheads and support payloads, the company demonstrates how future conflicts will be defined less by platform size and more by payload versatility (Picture source: Army Recognition Group)
The Drone 40 is presented as a small tactical unmanned aerial vehicle capable of carrying multiple payloads to support diverse missions. DefendTex offers a comprehensive catalogue of configurations, each optimized for specific operational roles. The ISR EO payload provides real-time imaging with a 3840×2160 resolution sensor, a 90-degree look-down angle, and 1080p encrypted video streaming at 30fps. Complementing this is the ISR TI module, a thermal imaging option with a 640×480 sensor for day and night surveillance. Together, these configurations transform the Drone 40 into a reliable reconnaissance tool for situational awareness in contested environments.
Beyond ISR, the Drone 40 offers offensive payloads. The FRAG module incorporates directional fragmentation charges with steel ball bearings and a proximity sensor, providing a 100-meter fragmentation radius suitable for anti-personnel effects. The EFP (Explosively Formed Projectile) payload is a shaped charge with integrated fuzing capable of penetrating up to 16mm of rolled homogeneous armor, making it a counter-armor solution against light vehicles. Smoke payloads are also available in white, orange, red, yellow, and green (with additional colors in development), allowing units to conceal movements or mark targets in complex environments.
For non-lethal and training roles, the Drone 40 can be equipped with a Flashbang payload delivering a 170 dB acoustic effect and 5 million candela brightness, designed for disorientation and urban operations. A dedicated Training Effector simulates live warheads with optical and proximity sensors, enabling cost-effective exercises. Other specialized variants include the IR Strobe and EO Streetlight payloads, each providing 100 meters of effective downward illumination, supporting night operations, marking, or signaling. The DEV (development) payload integrates computing and long-range LORA radios, offering a modular interface for testing and custom mission profiles.
Operationally, the Drone 40’s development reflects the growing convergence of loitering munitions and multipurpose drones. Unlike traditional systems locked into a single mission profile, it provides users with a flexible toolkit: ISR drones can switch to offensive payloads simply by replacing the effector. Compared to other systems of similar class, the Drone 40’s modularity is a decisive advantage, reducing logistical strain while enhancing combat effectiveness. Its encrypted communications, onboard computing, and integration of long-range LORA radios ensure compatibility with contemporary digital battle networks, a crucial asset for contested electromagnetic environments.
Strategically, this innovation has direct implications for how small units conduct operations. By combining surveillance, precision strikes, and support functions in a single family of drones, armed forces gain the capacity to adapt in real time to battlefield conditions. It also challenges adversaries, forcing them to prepare for a wide array of threats delivered by a drone that is visually identical regardless of payload. For military planners, such adaptability strengthens resilience, complicates enemy countermeasures, and lowers the entry cost of advanced drone warfare. On a geopolitical level, the Drone 40 fits into the broader shift where inexpensive, modular, and mass-producible unmanned systems increasingly offset the dominance of traditional firepower.
The presentation of the Drone 40 at MSPO 2025 illustrates how DefendTex is shaping the evolution of tactical drones. By offering a single platform with a spectrum of interchangeable warheads and support payloads, the company demonstrates how future conflicts will be defined less by platform size and more by payload versatility. As modern warfare becomes increasingly shaped by drones, systems like the Drone 40 represent not only a technical innovation but also a transformative shift in how armed forces plan and execute missions.
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At MSPO 2025 in Kielce, Poland, DefendTex, Australian company, unveiled the Drone 40 system, highlighting its versatility and modular payloads designed for the realities of modern combat. In an exhibition that placed unmanned aerial systems at the center of defense innovation, the Drone 40 stood out by demonstrating how a single platform can deliver reconnaissance, electronic support, and kinetic effects with a simple change of payload. This adaptability directly responds to the growing demands of conflicts such as Ukraine, where drones have become indispensable assets.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
The presentation of the Drone 40 at MSPO 2025 illustrates how DefendTex is shaping the evolution of tactical drones. By offering a single platform with a spectrum of interchangeable warheads and support payloads, the company demonstrates how future conflicts will be defined less by platform size and more by payload versatility (Picture source: Army Recognition Group)
The Drone 40 is presented as a small tactical unmanned aerial vehicle capable of carrying multiple payloads to support diverse missions. DefendTex offers a comprehensive catalogue of configurations, each optimized for specific operational roles. The ISR EO payload provides real-time imaging with a 3840×2160 resolution sensor, a 90-degree look-down angle, and 1080p encrypted video streaming at 30fps. Complementing this is the ISR TI module, a thermal imaging option with a 640×480 sensor for day and night surveillance. Together, these configurations transform the Drone 40 into a reliable reconnaissance tool for situational awareness in contested environments.
Beyond ISR, the Drone 40 offers offensive payloads. The FRAG module incorporates directional fragmentation charges with steel ball bearings and a proximity sensor, providing a 100-meter fragmentation radius suitable for anti-personnel effects. The EFP (Explosively Formed Projectile) payload is a shaped charge with integrated fuzing capable of penetrating up to 16mm of rolled homogeneous armor, making it a counter-armor solution against light vehicles. Smoke payloads are also available in white, orange, red, yellow, and green (with additional colors in development), allowing units to conceal movements or mark targets in complex environments.
For non-lethal and training roles, the Drone 40 can be equipped with a Flashbang payload delivering a 170 dB acoustic effect and 5 million candela brightness, designed for disorientation and urban operations. A dedicated Training Effector simulates live warheads with optical and proximity sensors, enabling cost-effective exercises. Other specialized variants include the IR Strobe and EO Streetlight payloads, each providing 100 meters of effective downward illumination, supporting night operations, marking, or signaling. The DEV (development) payload integrates computing and long-range LORA radios, offering a modular interface for testing and custom mission profiles.
Operationally, the Drone 40’s development reflects the growing convergence of loitering munitions and multipurpose drones. Unlike traditional systems locked into a single mission profile, it provides users with a flexible toolkit: ISR drones can switch to offensive payloads simply by replacing the effector. Compared to other systems of similar class, the Drone 40’s modularity is a decisive advantage, reducing logistical strain while enhancing combat effectiveness. Its encrypted communications, onboard computing, and integration of long-range LORA radios ensure compatibility with contemporary digital battle networks, a crucial asset for contested electromagnetic environments.
Strategically, this innovation has direct implications for how small units conduct operations. By combining surveillance, precision strikes, and support functions in a single family of drones, armed forces gain the capacity to adapt in real time to battlefield conditions. It also challenges adversaries, forcing them to prepare for a wide array of threats delivered by a drone that is visually identical regardless of payload. For military planners, such adaptability strengthens resilience, complicates enemy countermeasures, and lowers the entry cost of advanced drone warfare. On a geopolitical level, the Drone 40 fits into the broader shift where inexpensive, modular, and mass-producible unmanned systems increasingly offset the dominance of traditional firepower.
The presentation of the Drone 40 at MSPO 2025 illustrates how DefendTex is shaping the evolution of tactical drones. By offering a single platform with a spectrum of interchangeable warheads and support payloads, the company demonstrates how future conflicts will be defined less by platform size and more by payload versatility. As modern warfare becomes increasingly shaped by drones, systems like the Drone 40 represent not only a technical innovation but also a transformative shift in how armed forces plan and execute missions.
