Morocco Military Drones Outpace Spain’s Grounded Fleet

Moroccan drones strike targets with a regularity that no European army, with the exception of Ukraine, can match. Armed with this experience acquired in the Sahara, the military takes a new leap forward at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris. There it sealed a strategic alliance with Harmattan AI, a startup founded by an engineer from Rabat and recently funded to the tune of 200 million dollars. This partnership aims to develop attack drones and autonomous air defense. In practice, "it’s not a material contract per se, it’s a brain contract."

On Bladi.net : Morocco Military Drones Outpace Spain’s Defense Technology

This offensive doctrine rests on a clear determination: to design, program and operate its own combat fleets. Since an agreement concluded in December 2024, a factory of Turkish manufacturer Baykar is rising to locally produce the Bayraktar Akinci, a high-altitude aircraft widely validated in the field. The strategy thus favors quantity, autonomy linked to artificial intelligence and the accumulation of precious flight hours.

On the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, the response sorely lacks bite. Spain has spent 500 million euros to acquire 27 units of the SIRTAP developed by Airbus in Getafe. While the technical specifications display respectable performance — 750 kilos, 2,000 kilometers range and over twenty hours of flight — the aircraft suffers from a major shortcoming: it is a surveillance platform incapable of firing. The Spanish Army did request an armed variant, but this exists only on paper for now.

On Bladi.net : Morocco Set to Expand Africa’s Second-Largest Military Drone Fleet

Madrid nonetheless retains undeniable technological superiority in sensors and electronic warfare. The planned integration of American autonomy software Hivemind could moreover fill this gap and transform these surveillance devices into genuine combat nodes. However, according to Escudo Digital, the timeline plays irremediably against Europeans. SIRTAP test flights will not begin until the second half of the year, with first delivery expected no earlier than 2027. An administrative and logistical slowness that leaves Morocco manufacturing its own advantage in the skies.