03 January 2025

ZenaTech, Inc., a technology company specializing in AI drone solutions driven by Quantum Computing, Drones as a Service, and enterprise SaaS, announces that it has signed a lease to open a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone testing facility in Turkey.

The facility will serve as a product testing site for its subsidiary ZenaDrone’s ZenaDrone 1000 model drones designed for the US Defense Branches and NATO. The testing facility will be fully set up and operational during the first quarter of 2025.

“Having a testing facility in Turkey will accelerate the development of our US Defense and NATO models of the ZenaDrone 1000. Importantly it will help to advance our AI drone swarm solutions and the Drone Command Center hub at the heart of missions. Turkey is a favorable European location for experimental drone testing and known for its defense industry innovation and we are grateful to be collaborating there,” said CEO Shaun Passley, Ph.D.

The company will test defense drone applications including ISRT (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Targeting), logistics and transportation, and other applications over wide distances beyond an operator’s line of sight. The company will also design and test its Drone Command Center, a mobile room that manages the computers, controls, and communications for multiple drones flying at one time, which it intends to file a patent for in the first quarter of 2025. The site is expected to help provide additional testing and readiness for future US FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) licensing applications.

A drone command center is a centralized facility or mobile room used to monitor, control, and manage the operations of multiple drones or AI drone swarms in real-time. It acts as the operational hub where drone missions are planned, executed, and monitored, ensuring that drones are collecting data and performing their tasks safely, efficiently, and within regulatory guidelines.

A drone swarm is a group of autonomous drones that work together, coordinated by algorithms, to perform tasks with dramatically improved speed, efficiency, and coverage. ZenaTech previously announced the Sky Traffic project where ZenaDrone teams will be working on applications for drone swarms, also utilizing Quantum Computing, which will include border control and perimeter security military applications.

ZenaDrone previously completed paid trials with both the US Air Force and US Naval Research using its drones for carrying critical cargo -- such as blood -- in the field. ZenaDrone plans to manufacture and assemble its US Department of Defense (DoD) drones in Phoenix, Arizona.

The ZenaDrone 1000 is an autonomous drone, in a quadcopter design with eight rotors, and is considered a medium-sized drone, roughly the size of a boardroom table. It is designed for stable flight, maneuverability, heavy lift capabilities, incorporating innovative software technology, AI, sensors, and purpose-built attachments, along with compact and rugged hardware engineered for industrial and defense use.

ZenaDrone solutions for the US military must be NDAA (National Defense Administration Act) compliant, a requirement with strict drone cybersecurity and country of origin specifications, including chipsets, cameras, and components, which excludes a set list of Chinese manufacturers. The company previously announced that its supply chain is NDAA-compliant.

The company has also previously announced that it plans to apply for Green UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) followed by Blue UAS certification. The Blue UAS program is a stringent government-approved supplier list of drone companies that wish to do business with the US DoD. The Green UAS program is essentially the same as the Blue UAS program, only it is a more streamlined and faster certification process without the country of origin specifications.

About ZenaTech

ZenaTech is a technology company specializing in AI drones, Quantum Computing, Drone as a Service (DaaS), and enterprise SaaS solutions for mission-critical business applications. Since 2017, the company has leveraged its software development expertise and grown its drone design and manufacturing capabilities through ZenaDrone, to innovate and improve customer inspection, monitoring, safety, security, compliance, and surveying processes. With enterprise software customers using branded solutions in law enforcement, government, and industrial sectors, and drones being implemented in these plus agriculture, defense, and logistics sectors, ZenaTech’s portfolio of solutions helps drive exceptional operational efficiencies, accuracy and cost savings. The company operates through seven global offices in North America, Europe, Taiwan, and UAE, and is growing a DaaS business model and global partner network.

About ZenaDrone  

ZenaDrone, a wholly owned subsidiary of ZenaTech, develops and manufactures autonomous business drone solutions that can incorporate machine learning software, AI, predictive modeling, Quantum Computing, and other software and hardware innovations. Created to revolutionize the hemp farming sector, its specialization has grown to multifunctional drone solutions for industrial surveillance, monitoring, inspection, tracking, process automation and defense applications. Currently, the ZenaDrone 1000 drone is used for crop management applications in agriculture and critical field cargo applications in the defense sector, and the IQ Nano indoor drone is used for inventory management in the warehouse and logistics sectors.