Teledyne FLIR Defense, part of Teledyne Technologies Incorporated, and STORM have announced a partnership that will bring Teledyne FLIR’s Black Recon vehicle reconnaissance system to RADS, the Rapid Adapt and Deploy System. As a RADS Application Partner, Teledyne FLIR gains a standardised route to field Black Recon across many more vehicle types, while joining STORM’s growing ecosystem of certified technology partners. The partnership was signed at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris.
Black Recon lets crews autonomously launch, operate and recover up to three small reconnaissance UAVs from fixed sites or from inside a vehicle, providing persistent situational awareness ahead of advancing forces and beyond line of sight. Each UAV carries both electro-optical and thermal cameras and is controlled from the safety of the cabin, extending a crew’s reach well beyond the vehicle itself.
RADS adds a new dimension to that capability. Its open, modular architecture standardises how technology integrates onto vehicles, so Black Recon can be mounted, upgraded or moved between vehicles in minutes rather than through bespoke engineering. Because RADS spans platforms from standard pickups to the RADS Trailer and lighter platforms such as ATVs, UGVs, snowmobiles and boats, the same reconnaissance capability can be adapted and integrated to whichever platform an operator fields and repurposed as missions change. It can even be taken off the vehicle entirely and operated as a standalone, personal reconnaissance system, deployed wherever it is needed by a single operator in minutes.
For Teledyne FLIR Defense, the partnership also opens a commercial channel onto RADS-equipped fleets and STORM’s growing distributor network. As development progresses, the partners will explore additional Teledyne FLIR products and systems suited to RADS.
“Our customers operate in environments where mission requirements change quickly, and they need to add and update capability without taking vehicles out of service,” said Harald Sørensen, Vice President of Norway Operations at Teledyne FLIR Defense. “RADS gives us a standardised way to put Black Recon onto the platforms our customers already field and to do it at scale. We see RADS as a natural foundation for bringing more of our drone portfolio to vehicle fleets over time.”
“It is a real vote of confidence to have a company of Teledyne FLIR Defense’s standing build on RADS,” said Andreas Rist, Founder, STORM. “Black Recon is genuinely exciting technology and having a global leader in sensing and unmanned systems choose our platform means a great deal to us. We are proud to have them as a partner.
“With RADS you have a whole fleet where every vehicle can run any task and be repurposed as needs change, and a capability like Black Recon can be added, moved between vehicles, or deployed on its own in minutes. That’s exactly what this partnership is built to deliver,” Rist added.
