Africa; Undisclosed client orders BlueBird Spylite UAV.

An undisclosed African country has placed an order for SpyLite unmanned aerial vehicles from Israeli manufacturer BlueBird.

The SpyLite tactical UAV weights around 7 kilograms and has a payload of 1 kilogram. Its range is 10-35 kilometers and an endurance of 1.5-3.5 hours.

More and more African countries are looking into purchasing UAVs as a cost-effective and less labor-intensive way of monitoring long borders and infrastructure. In April 2011, BlueBird was awarded a contract to supply SpyLite and Boomerang man-portable fuel-cell-powered UAVs to the Ethiopian Army. It is also reported that BlueBird will help in establishing maintenance facilities for the UAVs in Addis Ababa.