TEKEVER unveils AR6 – new, UK-built, heavy-lift autonomous drone family at Farnborough Airshow 2026

• TEKEVER today unveiled AR6, a new family of products that expands the company’s autonomous portfolio into the heavy lift class for both miliary and civilian applications. 
• Designed and built in the UK with UK SME partners – AR6 delivers a UK sovereign solution for heavy lift autonomy, with production due to start by the end of 2026 in TEKEVER’s Swindon manufacturing hub.
• Leveraging unique propulsion technology, the AR6 family will deliver market leading payload capacity and endurance capable of lifting 200kg over 500km.

Farnborough International Airshow, 21 July 2026 – TEKEVER today revealed the latest expansion of its growing product offering with the launch of the AR6 family into the autonomous heavy lift market. TEKEVER, widely recognised as the European leader for ISR platforms, aims to address a core market gap in the heavy lift drone segment – delivering a platform that can ‘lift more and fly further’. 

TEKEVER’s solution provides a significant step-change to a market that is dominated by electric VTOL platforms typically capable of lifting up to 100kg only over very short distances (1-5km). By leveraging specialist advances in hydraulic and propulsion technology, TEKEVER AR6 aims to set a new standard – delivering 200kg over 500km. Built for harsh environments, the platforms will be able to operate in both very hot and cold conditions with minimum maintenance and sustainment costs. 

The AR6 family will serve both civil and military markets and open up a wide variety of new use cases previously unavailable to heavy lift electric quadcopters. Civil use cases includes logistics, offshore operations, medical support, search and rescue and disaster relief. Military use cases include casualty evacuation, forward logistics, and combat wingman concepts – such the UK Apache teaming concept under Project Nyx.

The AR6 combines novel technology with TEKEVER’s core suite of competences – its ‘as a service’ operations, rapid design iteration, proprietary autonomy stack and lessons from Ukraine. The military variant of AR6 will be able to fully operate without any GNSS reliance and include advanced ‘Mission Autonomy’ features for multi-platform swarming, crewed teaming and survivability. 

“AR6 represents the next evolution of our autonomous capability,” said Ricardo Mendes, CEO of TEKEVER. “For years, we’ve helped customers move information. Today, we’re extending that capability to moving what matters most. Autonomous Lift opens a new category of missions for TEKEVER and, more importantly, for our customers.”

“The future of autonomy is about delivering operational outcomes,” said Karl Brew,  Head of TEKEVER UK. “AR6 expands the envelop enabling us to leverage all of the experience we have built up in Ukraine and around the world into a whole new set of use cases. “

The AR6 family builds on TEKEVER’s extensive operational experience and mission-driven approach to innovation, further expanding the company’s autonomous capabilities across defence, security and civil applications.