FuVeX has made available to the Drone Unit of the Spanish Military Emergency Unit (UDRUME) FuVeX Hexa Mk.2 and Mk2.5 aircraft to support its response to wildfires and other emergencies. The systems were supplied under a rental agreement and have been specifically adapted to the Unit’s operational needs.
The aircraft incorporate electro-optical and thermal sensors capable of providing up-to-date images of the fire both day and night. The information gathered during flight can be transmitted to the teams managing the emergency, helping them identify hotspots, track the evolution of fronts, and understand areas of greatest operational interest.
“In a wildfire, having reliable, up-to-date information can be as important as having the means to act. Our drones function as the UME’s eyes in the sky and enable aerial observation to continue even at night, when many conventional assets have limited operations,” explains Carlos Matilla, CEO and cofounder of FuVeX.
More than 100,000 kilometers of operational experience brought to emergencies
The systems supplied to UDRUME build on technology FuVeX has used for years in industrial operations inspecting critical infrastructure, which the company has subsequently adapted to defense and security applications. FuVeX aircraft have accumulated more than 100,000 kilometers of flight in real-world operations, a wealth of experience that enables transferring to emergencies knowledge about endurance, reliability, communications, maintenance, and routine field operation.
“We are not merely providing a flight service, but transferring a technological capability to one of Europe’s leading units in the use of unmanned systems for emergencies. Working directly with their teams will allow us to learn from their experience and continue developing drones specifically tailored to this type of mission so that our drones help decisively in the fight against wildfires,” adds Matilla.
The technology has successfully completed the validation tests and exercises conducted to date. After completing this first phase, the aircraft are now available to the UME for use during the wildfire season.
Night-capable aerial capacity
The ability to observe at night constitutes one of the most significant contributions of the systems. When some conventional aerial assets reduce or interrupt their operations, the drones can maintain from the air the capture of visual and thermal information, providing continuity to the understanding of the fire’s progression while teams continue working on the ground.
The concrete integration of these images into command-and-control procedures, as well as the operational decisions made based on them, rests with the UME.
From response to prevention
The project marks FuVeX’s entry into the emergency vertical and the start of a collaboration the company intends to sustain in the long term. The immediate objective is to demonstrate the usefulness of the technology in real emergency operations and to leverage the knowledge gained with UDRUME to develop a new generation of European long-range drones.
In the medium to long term, FuVeX is working on developing the infrastructure for autonomous long-range drones that enable high-resolution geospatial data capture in continuous forest surveillance, defense and security operations, agriculture, as well as the inspection of energy networks and other critical infrastructures.
“The rising risk and intensity of wildfires demand tools that enable earlier detection, longer observation, and better-informed action. Artificial intelligence can help us interpret what’s happening on the ground more accurately, but to do so it requires reliable, up-to-date data. Our goal is to develop autonomous aerial infrastructure capable of obtaining those data there and when needed, in both emergencies and civilian and defense applications,” concludes Matilla.
FuVeX aircraft have been designed, developed, industrialized, and manufactured in Spain thanks to a team of more than 90 people. The company maintains in Spain the capabilities for engineering, integration, manufacturing, and evolution of its platforms and control systems, which enables adapting the technology to new operational needs and reducing reliance on external technology.
This common technological base allows transferring to the field of Emergencies, Security, and Defense the robustness gained from thousands of hours of civilian operation, and, conversely, incorporating into civilian applications capabilities developed for more demanding scenarios. FuVeX thus outlines a dual strategy aimed at strengthening European technological autonomy in unmanned aerial systems.
