Teledyne FLIR Announces ION M640x Next-Gen Tactical Quadcopter
11.10.2021 14:01:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Teledyne FLIR, part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated (NYSE:TDY), today announced the launch of the ION™ M640x tactical Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). The American designed, developed, and manufactured UAS builds on the capabilities of the ION M440 (a Blue sUAS) and will provide military and other government customers with best-in-class capabilities for their unique missions.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211011005025/en/
The Teledyne FLIR ION™ M640x tactical Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is an American designed, developed, and manufactured UAS that will provide military and public safety users with best-in-class capabilities for their missions. The ION M640x features a 640x512 infrared sensor providing twice the resolution of similar UAS, and a Near-Infrared (NIR) laser illuminator. ION M640x includes all-new smart object tracking that enables operators to designate an object for the aircraft to detect and track while it moves. The M640x is MAVLINK compliant and interoperable with Common Ground Control Stations (C-GCS), including the U.S. Army Tactical Open Ground Station Architecture (TOGA). Easily rucksack portable at about 4 pounds, the M640x is rated for operation in demanding environments, including rain and wind. The ION M640x is evolved from the ION M440, one of the original five UAS platforms approved by the U.S. Dept. of Defense under the Blue sUAS program. (Photo: Business Wire)
“Our proven, U.S.-based engineering expertise and focus on defense and public safety markets means our customers are getting the most secure and capable UAS solutions,” said Thomas Rambo, senior director of Unmanned and Integrated Solutions at Teledyne FLIR. “The ION M640x builds on our unique position as a domestic provider of unmanned systems and sensing technology and boasts high resolution infrared imaging, smart object tracking, laser illumination, and industry-leading support and service.”
The ION M640x features a 640x512 infrared sensor providing twice the resolution of similar UAS, and a Near-Infrared (NIR) laser illuminator. The NIR illuminator enables operators to pinpoint objects of interest for increased coordination and visibility for other mission participants. ION M640x also includes all-new smart object tracking that enables operators to designate an object for the aircraft to detect and track while it moves. Other new features include an SD card to easily retrieve photos and video recorded during flight, as well as tri-band radio capabilities.
Open system architecture is another key feature of the ION M640x, and the system utilizes a high-powered discrete mission computer for advanced autonomous functions. It is also MAVLINK compliant and interoperable with Common Ground Control Stations (C-GCS), including the U.S. Army Tactical Open Ground Station Architecture (TOGA). Easily rucksack portable at about 4 pounds, the M640x is rated for operation in demanding environments, including rain and wind.
The ION M640x is evolved from the ION M440, one of the original five UAS platforms approved by the U.S. Department of Defense under the Blue sUAS program, for sale to U.S. military and federal agencies. The M440 was developed by Gainesville, Florida-based Altavian Inc., which FLIR acquired in December 2020.
Leveraging Teledyne FLIR’s longstanding reputation as a trusted provider of unmanned systems for military and public safety organizations, the ION M640x is backed by the company’s world class standards for service, training, and technical support.
About Teledyne FLIR
Teledyne FLIR, a Teledyne Technologies company, is a world leader in intelligent sensing solutions for defense and industrial applications with approximately 4,000 employees worldwide. Founded in 1978, the company creates advanced technologies to help professionals make better, faster decisions that save lives and livelihoods. For more information, please visit www.teledyneflir.com or follow @flir.
About Teledyne Technologies
Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated digital imaging products and software, instrumentation, aerospace and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Teledyne's operations are primarily located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western and Northern Europe. For more information, visit Teledyne's website at www.teledyne.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211011005025/en/
Contact information
Joe Ailinger, Jr.
Teledyne FLIR
Phone: +1 781-801-6161
Email: joe.ailinger@teledyneflir.com
Ryan Williams
Targeted Victory
Phone: +1 617-697-9072
Email: rwilliams@targetedvictory.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Airship Announces Results Guarantee; Releases Commissioned Study Finding 476% ROI for Composite Organization22.7.2026 18:00:00 EEST | Press release
Airship, the mobile-first customer experience platform leader, today announced its Airship Results Guarantee, a corporate commitment to achieve predetermined business outcomes for new customers. Concurrently, the company released the results of a separate, commissioned Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Airship, July 2026. The study found that a composite organization based on interviewed customers achieved a 476% Return on Investment (ROI) with a payback period of less than six months. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260722832535/en/ Airship has launched a new results guarantee offer to stand behind its value. Alongside this offer, the team shared the results of a new Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study commissioned with Forrester Consulting illustrating that a composite organization achieved a 476% ROI with a payback period of less than six months. “We introduced
Arrakis Comes out of Stealth With $38M to Help Industrial Enterprises Compete in the AI Era22.7.2026 16:56:00 EEST | Press release
Arrakis, the AI deployment company helping industrial companies install AI agents for mission-critical operations, today announced a $30 million Series A led by Blossom Capital, with participation from existing investor Accel, which also led the company's $7.5 million seed round. The round brings total funding to around $38 million and includes backing from prominent technology leaders, including Olivier Pomel, founder and chief executive of Datadog, Olivier Godement, OpenAI’s Head of business products and Junaid Hussein, founder of Cambridge Aerospace. Founded in January 2026 by former Accel investor Rafael Quintanilla, together with co-founders Haroun Beltaifa, Romain Fouilland and Mikhail Galkov - alumni of Palantir, DeliveryHero, Revolut, Datadog and ASML - Arrakis helps industrial companies deploy AI into core operational workflows across aerospace, energy, logistics, manufacturing, construction and telecommunications markets. Across the US and Europe, governments and businesses a
Vultr and AMD Support the University of Cambridge's TESSERA AI Project to Accelerate Global Environmental Monitoring22.7.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Vultr, the world’s largest privately-held cloud infrastructure company, and AMD, a leader in high-performance and AI computing, have announced their support for the University of Cambridge's Energy & Environment Group in developing TESSERA, a groundbreaking AI foundation model designed to monitor environmental change internationally at unprecedented scale. Vultr is providing the computational infrastructure, based on AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators, necessary to generate global embeddings covering Earth's land surface from 2017 to 2025, enabling applications in agriculture, biodiversity conservation, and renewable energy infrastructure monitoring. The collaboration represents a significant advancement in applying artificial intelligence to planetary conservation challenges. TESSERA processes data from European Space Agency Sentinel satellites to create detailed embeddings - compressed AI representations - of every 10-meter square of Earth's surface. TESSERA represents the most accurat
Omilia Appoints Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer to Lead Global Brand and Growth Strategy22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Omilia, a global leader in Self-Learning Agentic CX, today announced the appointment of Ryan Kam as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Ryan will be responsible for Omilia's global brand, demand generation, and marketing strategy as the company scales its go-to-market presence across enterprise markets. In his new role, Kam will own Omilia's global marketing function, spanning brand strategy, demand generation, product marketing, analyst relations and communications. He joins at a moment of significant commercial momentum: Omilia has seen accelerating enterprise demand across all industries and is investing in a marketing engine built to match the pace of its growth. Ryan Kam brings more than 20 years of marketing leadership across some of the most recognized names in enterprise technology. Most recently, he served as CMO at Egnyte, a leader in cloud content security and governance. Prior to that, Kam held the CMO role at LogicMonitor, where he drove growth for one of the leading infrastruc
Echodyne Announces ATAK Integration for MESA® Radar Platform22.7.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
Echodyne, the radar platform company, today announced the availability of an Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) plugin for its MESA® radar platform. The integration enables users to configure, control, and visualize data from Echodyne radars within the ATAK environment, supporting military, public safety, and security operations that rely on TAK for shared situational awareness. The plugin extends radar management and visualization capabilities to ATAK users, allowing high-fidelity radar data and system controls to be accessed through a familiar operational interface. By integrating radar data into existing TAK workflows, organizations can streamline deployment, reduce operator workload, and improve access to real-time situational awareness. TAK is a government-developed geospatial platform used across U.S. military, federal, state, and local government organizations, as well as by U.S. partner nations. According to the U.S. Army TAK Product Center, the TAK ecosystem supports 15 Departm
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom