Drones from Crete

Greece is not the first country that comes to mind for drones, but ALTUS LSA has built a defence business on Crete since 2011. Its head office sits at Agia near Chania, with a corporate office in Athens. The company started as an operator rather than a maker: its first contract, in 2012, was a service deal with the Hellenic Police. In 2015 it won its first international work, flying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions in Kosovo, and it still runs its own fleet of unmanned aircraft.

Operator first, manufacturer second

That operational background shaped what it builds. ALTUS opened a drone academy accredited by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority in 2017, and lists NATO, Frontex, the European Commission, the European Maritime Safety Agency and the Hellenic Police among its customers. The company describes itself as funding its own research and development and bringing finished systems to market quickly. In 2023 it signed a memorandum of understanding with MBDA France, and in 2024 it gained a Light UAS Operator Certificate, which lets it authorise its own operations under European rules.

Atlas, Edomon and targets

Its products cover several niches. The Atlas 4 and Atlas 204 A20 are multicopters for surveillance and inspection; the Atlas 8, in electric and hybrid forms, is a heavy-lift multicopter intended for small cargo and last-mile delivery. Edomon is a hybrid vertical take-off drone based on the Supervolo platform, and Ouranos is a fixed-wing tactical system. ALTUS also supplies tow targets, unmanned aerial targets and marine targets for armed-forces training, plus drone hangars and the M3NTOR software for managing several drones at once.

Fabrikalar

• Head office · Agia, Chania, Crete