This week’s news round up features stories on how Saildrone is expanding their locations, ZenaTech’s newest acquisition, and a trial run of drone deliveries for aircraft maintenance in Latin America.

Saildrone Expands Locations         

Saildrone announced a major European expansion on August 18, 2026, anchored by a new EU headquarters at the historic Quintus Bastion in Copenhagen, alongside three build contracts across Northern Europe. Van Der Valk Shipyard in the Netherlands will build the first European-produced 52-meter Saildrone Spectre, Umoe Mandal in Norway will produce the next-generation Surveyor, and Southern Spars in Poland will manufacture the Surveyor's wings. CEO Richard Jenkins said the Copenhagen headquarters will handle business development, maintenance, and piloting activities, while the office itself—brings new roles in mission management, vehicle assembly, technical operations, and piloting. The ribbon-cutting on August 17 was officiated by Prince Joachim of Denmark, who praised the technology's role in protecting European waters.

Saildrone now operates more than 70 USVs across four vehicle classes (Explorer, Voyager, Surveyor, and Spectre). Europe managing director Robert Kleist framed the move as creating "enduring sovereign capability" for European partners tackling challenges like drug trafficking, illegal fishing, and infrastructure protection, mirroring work Saildrone has done for governments elsewhere. The company is set to showcase this expansion at DALO Industry Days in Herning on August 19-20, 2026.

ZenaTech Acquires Canadian Civil and Structural Engineering Firm

ZenaTech, Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of Cogswell Engineering, Ltd., a Canadian civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering firm based in Dartmouth, near Halifax, Nova Scotia. The deal marks ZenaTech's 28th Drone as a Service (DaaS) acquisition overall, its third in Canada, and its second in the Halifax region. CEO Shaun Passley said the acquisition extends ZenaTech's DaaS footprint in Atlantic Canada while adding civil and structural engineering design capabilities, noting that Cogswell's provincial licensing and client base spanning five provinces creates opportunities for drone-enabled surveying, structural inspections, construction monitoring, and stormwater management services.

ZenaTech plans to layer drone-based site inspections, structural monitoring, and 3-D data capture (via its ZenaWorx platform) onto Cogswell's existing engineering services, tapping into a drone inspection and monitoring market that's growing 19% annually and projected to reach nearly $37 billion by 2030. The release frames this within ZenaTech's broader strategy of acquiring established but "under digitized" service businesses and layering its ZenaDrone subscription-based DaaS platform on top, offering customers surveying, inspection, maintenance, and precision agriculture services without requiring them to own or operate their own commercial drone fleets. 

Drones used for Material Transport in LATAM Airlines

LATAM Airlines, which has used drones for aircraft inspections since 2019, is now testing drones to transport small maintenance materials between its warehouse and workshops at its 95,000-m² MRO facility in Sao Carlos, Brazil, which houses nine hangars and 22 workshops. Previously, ethanol-powered vehicles made these deliveries three times a day, causing significant waiting times. The drone system has cut individual trip times from 15 minutes to just 30 seconds and now handles roughly 160 daily operations at the facility.

Warehouse employees load the materials and launch the drones autonomously, with the system following safety protocols like speed and altitude limits, though LATAM hasn't clarified whether the drones are manually piloted or follow preprogrammed routes. The airline says the technology frees up logistics staff who previously moved smaller items to instead focus on transporting larger materials. LATAM is also considering expanding the drone transport system to new routes within the Sao Carlos facility and potentially to other warehouses and workshops in the future.