“We are Setting the Standard for Compact, Autonomous, and Secure Drone Systems”

Parrot has been successful in addressing the growing demand for secure, readily available, and affordable micro-UAVs engineered to operate in the harshest tactical environments, says Chris Roberts, the Paris-based Group's Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer.

In an interview, Roberts speaks about the new products that the Group has brought to the Paris Air show, its growing global footprint, and the focus on NATO partner countries.

A leading European group for professional microdrones, Parrot has a strong and growing international presence. The Group’s products are primarily used for defence and public safety Intelligence, Surveillance and Recognition (ISR) operations, and in other areas such as Precision Agriculture, Inspection, 3D Mapping, and Geomatics.

The demand for armed and unarmed military drones have soared in recent years. Is the trend reflected in the professional and enterprise drone market as well?

Yes, we’re seeing stronger momentum in the professional and enterprise drone market, particularly in public safety and civil protection applications. Government agencies, police forces, and first responders are actively seeking powerful dual-use drone technology that brings military-grade resilience and immediate mission-readiness into civilian operations.

What are the standout features of ANAFI UKR?

Our newest drone is the ANAFI UKR GOV. The ANAFI UKR is an evolution of our first-generation defence and public safety micro-UAV, the ANAFI USA. ANAFI UKR builds on the proven fundamentals that positioned ANAFI USA as a trusted micro-UAV globally, combined with the latest requirements for modern missions, after several years of working closely with defence, public safety, and government agencies.

ANAFI UKR stands out from the other ANAFI drones because of its fully autonomous operation. ANAFI UKR embodies a new generation of tactical micro-UAVs, built for real-world missions, where GNSS is denied, connectivity is unreliable, and real-time access to accurate imagery, day or night, can shift the outcome. It integrates onboard artificial intelligence that enables optical navigation, real-time detection, recognition, and adaptation entirely offline without cloud dependency.

You also unveiled the Advanced AI powered autopilot module (CHUCK 3.0) in Paris. Tell us more about it.

CHUCK 3.0 is an embeddable advanced Ai autopilot module designed to equip any type of UAV—whether quadcopter, VTOL, helicopter, or fixed-wing aircraft. CHUCK 3.0 is a compact all-in-one module that fuses AI-driven technologies for a spoof-proof multi-band radio (MARS) and real-time optical navigation for GNSS/GPS-denied airspace. It also brings obstacle avoidance and a stabilized three-axis gimbal with day- and night-grade imaging. CHUCK 3.0 streamlines OEM workflows from initial concept to mission-ready deployment in a matter of months, with Parrot’s extensive UAV expertise embedded.

What are some of the industries where your drones are most widely used?

Since the introduction of our first professional micro-UAV in 2020, the Parrot ANAFI USA developed and built for the U.S. DIU SRR program, we have built a diverse portfolio in terms of geography and end users. We cover defence and public safety, including police, first responders, customs and border patrol, coast guard, firefighting, search and rescue, and government and enterprise on a global scale.

Can you talk about the company’s association with the U.S. Army?

In 2020, Parrot was selected for the SRR (Short Range Reconnaissance) program facilitated by the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to accelerate adoption and implementation of everyday micro-UAV technology by U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The DIU launched the Blue sUAS program to accredit secure allied micro-UAVs for U.S. DOD and Federal Agency use. Parrot’s ANAFI USA was a founding product on the inaugural Blue sUAS list.

ANAFI USA is made in the U.S. with exceptional encryption and privacy features, fully compliant with the TAA (Trade Agreements Act) and NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and serves multiple users in the U.S., from the Army to various agencies and law enforcement to public responders.

How extensively used are the company’s drones by law enforcement agencies and militaries around the world? Is that a significant and growing part of your business?

Our drones are used across law enforcement agencies and defence forces in most NATO partner countries globally. Secure, readily available, and affordable micro-UAVs engineered to operate in the harshest tactical environments are in high demand. Parrot is addressing these needs with technology that has the proven ability to scale.

The professional and enterprise drone market is dominated by Chinese manufacturers. Do you see it changing with time?

Yes, strongly. Sovereignty and security are now top concerns for a growing list of countries, originally driven by the U.S. but now echoed across Europe, the UK, Australia and other NATO partners. Cybersecurity and supply chain resilience matter a lot in the current geopolitical environment. Both ANAFI USA and ANAFI UKR are totally free from Chinese component and supply chains, combined with Parrot’s EU-based development teams, servers, and adherence to GDPR regulations.

What makes your company’s products stand out from the competition?

Parrot stands apart by combining field-proven technology, user-driven design, and sovereign engineering. Over the past years, we’ve worked closely with end-users across defence, public safety, and government sectors, including in Ukraine, to address real-world tactical needs in high-threat environments. This operational feedback has directly shaped the development of ANAFI UKR: a micro-UAV built for combat conditions but designed to serve a broader range of institutional missions worldwide.

What sets our system apart is not only robustness and autonomy, but the convergence of mission-critical features in a compact, deployable format. MARS, our military-grade frequency hopping radio, ensures secure, unjammable links, even in contested electromagnetic environments. Optical navigation allows full autonomy in GNSS/GPS-denied areas. Embedded AI enables real-time object detection, classification, and tracking, entirely offline.

Remote antenna capability allows the operator to remain protected or mobile. A LoRa backup link ensures safe return-to-home, even in signal-degraded situations. And our advanced SDK suite is one of the most open and mature in its class, allowing full integration into sovereign or hybrid command systems. This combination of real autonomy, hardened resilience, and developer-level openness makes Parrot’s micro-UAVs a unique answer to today’s tactical and institutional drone needs.

How successful has the company been in expanding its global footprint? In which regions do you see the most potential for growth?

We have always been a very international company, with our home market France only ever representing around 15% of our revenues. Generally, our revenue distribution is one-third European, one-third North American, and one-third from the rest of the world. We are focused on NATO partner countries and addressing this market with a global, scalable, product portfolio.

Where do you see the company in ten years?

To look forward, it's important to consider where the industry has come from. Over the past decade, micro-UAVs have evolved from experimental tools into mission-critical assets for defence, public safety, and government operations. This transformation—accelerated by rapid advances in mobile computing and edge AI—was not fully anticipated, even by early pioneers. As one of the first players in the professional micro-UAV space, Parrot has helped shape this evolution. Today, with solutions like ANAFI UKR and CHUCK 3.0, we are setting the standard for compact, autonomous, and secure drone systems designed for real-world conditions.

In ten years, we see Parrot continuing to lead on three fronts: delivering trusted autonomy through edge-native AI and cloud-free architectures, providing sovereign, interoperable systems tailored to institutional missions, and building an open, adaptive ecosystem that empowers users to shape their own capabilities. Our roadmap is not just about technological performance—it's about giving public actors the tools they need to act quickly, independently, and with full control of their data in increasingly complex environments.