Bengaluru-based Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace has signed an industrial partnership with Portugal-based Keydef to manufacture its Kaal Bhairava autonomous UAV and YAMA interceptor drone in Portugal. Keydef, the defence and aerospace division of Sketchpixel LDA, will make an initial investment of €6 million in the venture, which targets Europe and other global markets. The agreement, signed at Keydef’s facility in Braga, will pursue NATO certification to enable sales across NATO member countries.
FWDA Keydef Partnership: What Has Been Agreed?
Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace and Keydef signed the industrial partnership agreement at Keydef’s facilities in Braga, Portugal. India’s Ambassador to Portugal, Puneet Roy Kundal, and Angola’s Consul-General in Porto, Dulce Gomes, were present at the signing. Under the agreement, Keydef will invest an initial €6 million (about $6.8 million) in Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace.
The Portugal unit will initially produce two systems, the Kaal Bhairav Lite autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and the YAMA interceptor drone. A UAV is an aircraft that flies without a pilot on board and is controlled by onboard software or a remote operator. An autonomous drone is a UAV that can sense its surroundings, choose its path and complete tasks without continuous human control. The partners have said the Portugal range will later extend to other surveillance systems, air defence systems and civilian uses such as precision agriculture.
The work is not limited to assembly. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace will retain intellectual property rights over the core autonomous systems and airframe design, while Keydef and Sketchpixel LDA will contribute manufacturing capacity, electronic components and artificial intelligence modules. New communication systems, simulation tools and AI modules will be coded jointly in Keydef’s laboratories in Portugal and Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace’s laboratories in India, with regular exchange of teams and knowledge.
The partners are also working with the University of Minho on a long endurance uncrewed aircraft designed to achieve up to 100 hours of autonomy. The project focuses on persistent flight, aircraft design, materials and autonomous systems. A joint laboratory is planned at Fábrica do Arquinho from 2028 to provide a long term framework for research with the university. Sketchpixel LDA brings experience in fighter aircraft simulation systems, including work linked to platforms such as the F-16.
What Is the Kaal Bhairava Autonomous UAV?
The Kaal Bhairava is India’s first indigenous Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) autonomous combat aircraft. MALE refers to drones that fly at medium heights, typically up to 30,000 feet, and stay airborne for more than 24 hours. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace unveiled the full combat version, named FWD Kaal Bhairava E2A2, in Bengaluru in August 2025. E2A2 stands for Economic and Efficient Autonomous Aircraft. The company states that the system is 80 percent designed, developed and manufactured in India.
Kaal Bhairava uses engine based propulsion and artificial intelligence for adaptive targeting, flight path management and live combat decisions. It can perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), precision strikes and swarm operations where several aircraft strike from different angles to saturate enemy air defences. ISR means gathering information through cameras, sensors and radar to support military decisions. In September 2026, the smaller Kaal Bhairav Lite variant completed 100 cumulative hours of flight testing.
| Feature | Kaal Bhairava E2A2 (Combat) | Kaal Bhairav Lite (Portugal focus) |
|---|---|---|
| Type | MALE autonomous combat aircraft | Long endurance ISR UAV |
| Range | 3,000 km with SATCOM support | 1,300 km max linear range in ISR mode, 150 km operational range |
| Endurance | 30 hours (surveillance), 11 hours (strike) | 5 to 15 hours |
| Ceiling | 20,000 feet | Short runway operation in less than 150 metres |
| Payload | 91 kg including sensors and guided rockets | 10 kg |
| Design | Twin boom, 6.5 metre wingspan, short take off and landing | Twin boom pusher, 4.4 metre wingspan, 50 kg maximum take off weight |
The cost logic is central to the programme. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace says ten Kaal Bhairavas can be fielded for the price of a single United States made MQ-9 Reaper Predator. India finalised a deal in October 2024 to acquire 31 MQ-9B armed UAVs for about $3.5 to $4 billion. The company has reported a $25 million export order from a South Asian nation as part of a broader $30 million strategic deal. In November 2025, the Kaal Bhairav E2A2 won a silver medal at the ARCA International Innovation Exhibition in Croatia. The Portugal hub is the first overseas node under Operation 777, a plan announced by founder Suhas Tejaskanda to build manufacturing and deployment partnerships across seven continents and 77 countries.
What Is the YAMA Swarm Interceptor?
The FWD YAMA is described as India’s first autonomous swarm interceptor for counter drone warfare. A counter drone system detects, tracks and neutralises hostile drones in the air. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace successfully tested YAMA in March 2026. Once cued by radar or surveillance systems, YAMA can detect, classify, prioritise, track and engage aerial threats without continuous human input.
What Is a Swarm Drone?
A swarm drone is one unit of a group of small drones that fly together and share data through wireless links and onboard software. The group acts as a single system, divides tasks among itself and continues the mission even if some units are lost.
YAMA is built for that logic. Multiple YAMA units can be launched together to handle several incoming drones at the same time. If one interceptor is lost, the remaining units redistribute targets and continue the engagement. This makes the system useful against threats ranging from micro drones, including DJI Mini class platforms, to larger unmanned systems.
How Does a Drone Swarm Work?
A drone swarm works through distributed artificial intelligence and mesh communication where each drone senses neighbours and targets and adjusts its path. A ground radar or surveillance input cues the swarm, after which units allocate targets, avoid collisions and strike in coordination without central control.
YAMA applies this method to interception. It carries onboard radar and smart navigation, with an electro optical and infrared (EOIR) payload to detect heat and visual signatures. EOIR means combined day camera and thermal imaging for target detection and precision engagement. The platform is designed to operate in GPS denied and communication contested environments, including under electronic warfare and jamming.
| YAMA Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Maximum take off weight | 2.6 kg |
| Payload | EOIR sensor |
| Endurance | 10 minutes |
| Cruise speed | 108 km per hour |
| Dive speed | 198 km per hour |
| Range | 4 km line of sight |
| Vertical range | 500 metres above ground level |
| Battery | 6,000 mAh |
The economic argument shapes its appeal. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace says YAMA enables precision interception at a projected cost up to 100 times lower than conventional missile based air defence. Recent conflicts have shown low cost attack drones priced below $20,000 forcing the use of interceptors costing over $4 million per launch. YAMA is designed for both ground based launch and future airborne deployment from larger aircraft.
Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace: Company Profile
Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace is a Bengaluru based deep technology defence company founded in 2022 by Suhas Tejaskanda and Srivatsav Kompelly. Tejaskanda serves as Founder and Chief Executive Officer (as of October 2026). The company works on net centric warfare systems, a concept where sensors, aircraft and command centres share live data over a network to reduce human casualties and speed up decisions. Its registered unit operates from Electronic City, Bengaluru.
The company became the first private Indian firm to secure Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) type certification for indigenous unmanned aircraft. DGCA is India’s civil aviation safety regulator headquartered in New Delhi. Type certification confirms that a drone design meets airworthiness and safety standards. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace holds certifications for models including the FWDA10 and FWDA10-V1 hexacopter, and follows ISO 9001:2015 quality standards. Its portfolio spans combat UAVs, loitering munitions, bomber UAVs, agriculture drones and surveillance platforms.
The product family includes the Kaalbhairav Lite, Medium and Heavy variants, YAMA, the FWD-200B bomber UAV, the FWD-LM loitering munition with about 100 km range, and agriculture models such as the FWD-A10. A loitering munition is a drone that circles over an area and dives onto a target when found. The company claims a fully indigenous maintenance, repair and overhaul ecosystem and a service network covering more than 19,000 pin codes and 450 cities. In June 2026, it also unveiled the FWD Supreme Lite technology demonstrator concept for an AI piloted fighter jet, with first flight targeted for late 2026.
Why Portugal: NATO Certification and Global Markets
Portugal offers three advantages for an Indian drone maker, location, industrial base and alliance access. Portugal is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a 32 member military alliance headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Systems manufactured in Portugal can pursue NATO standardisation and airworthiness processes, including interface norms such as STANAG 4586 for UAV control and STANAG 4671 for airworthiness. Certification within a NATO country eases sales and joint operations across member states.
Keydef itself holds NATO Science and Technology Organization membership participation and OTAN industrial security accreditation (GNS_SAI/2026/202NS) for handling classified defence work. OTAN is the French and Portuguese acronym for NATO. Keydef is also recognised by Portugal’s National Agency for Innovation (ANI) as an official research and development entity. Its listed partners include the Portuguese Air Force, the University of Minho and the Polytechnic of Tomar. The southern waters off Lisbon also host REPMUS, the world’s largest annual exercise for testing maritime unmanned systems, co organised by the European Defence Agency, NATO and the Portuguese Navy with participation from more than 20 nations in 2025.
The commercial aim is direct. Drones built in Braga will be marketed to European, African and other international buyers rather than shipped only from India. Keydef Chief Executive Officer Miguel Abreu has said the venture combines Portuguese and Indian engineering for international markets, while Suhas Tejaskanda has called Portugal a natural gateway for Indian engineering into Europe. The model shifts India’s role from exporter of finished systems to co producer on European soil, which can reduce export control friction, shorten supply chains and build trust with NATO buyers.
Significance for India’s Drone Ecosystem
The UAV landscape in India is expanding fast across the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force. The Army has inducted swarm capable surveillance drones, loitering munitions and counter drone systems for border surveillance and infantry support. The Navy uses Sea Guardian type long endurance platforms for maritime patrol, while the Air Force deploys Israeli origin Searcher class systems alongside indigenous projects. Defence drone manufacturing companies in India now include large public firms and private startups such as ideaForge, NewSpace Research and Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace.
The FWDA Keydef pact supports the Make in India push in a new way. Make in India, launched in 2014 by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, aims to turn India into a design and manufacturing hub. Earlier phases focused on building at home to cut imports. This agreement takes Indian design abroad for co production, which signals confidence in Indian intellectual property. Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace retains core rights while adding European manufacturing stamps and research links.
The deal also touches two urgent military needs. First, affordable long range ISR reduces dependence on costly imported MALE systems. Second, low cost swarm interceptors address the cost asymmetry exposed in recent wars, where cheap attack drones exhaust expensive missile stocks. By pairing a MALE platform with a swarm interceptor, the partners cover both sides of modern drone warfare, strike and shield. For global buyers, the pitch is sovereign control with no foreign kill switch, secure data handling and a full maintenance chain managed by the original designer.
Key Takeaways
- Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace signed an industrial partnership with Keydef of Sketchpixel LDA to manufacture drones in Braga, Portugal with an initial investment of €6 million.
- The Portugal unit will initially produce the Kaal Bhairav Lite autonomous UAV and the YAMA swarm interceptor drone for global markets.
- The Kaal Bhairava E2A2 is a MALE combat aircraft with 3,000 km range, 30 hour surveillance endurance and 91 kg payload.
- The FWD YAMA, tested in March 2026, is a 2.6 kg autonomous interceptor with 108 km per hour cruise speed and 4 km range.
- Systems made in Portugal will seek NATO certification, while a joint laboratory is planned at Fábrica do Arquinho from 2028 with the University of Minho.
