Citymesh deploys Aera with four Belgian coastal police zones
Four coastal police zones have begun a joint pilot using the Avy Aera 4, operated by Citymesh, for long-endurance aerial surveillance to help prevent dangerous Channel crossings.
Four police zones along the Belgian coast have launched a joint pilot project using the Avy Aera 4, operated and integrated by Citymesh, to support the fight against human smuggling and help prevent dangerous crossings of the English Channel.
Under a cooperation agreement named Droneschild Oostkust, the zones of De Haan/Bredene, Bruges, Knokke-Heist/Damme and Blankenberge/Zuienkerke have pooled their expertise and budget to invest together in drone technology rather than each acquiring it separately. Over the coming months the aircraft will be tested along the coastal strip from Oosteroever to the Dutch border, with operations coordinated from a central command centre within the Bredene/De Haan zone.
A fixed wing VTOL for large-area surveillance
At the heart of the project is Aera, a fixed wing VTOL aircraft. It takes off and lands vertically, so it needs no runway and can launch from a confined site, then transitions to efficient flight on a fixed wing. This lets it cover far larger areas and stay airborne significantly longer than a conventional multirotor, making it well suited to monitoring an extended and difficult coastal environment of beaches, dunes and open water, by day or night.
That endurance and reach is what allows the police to observe large, hard-to-search areas efficiently, and to locate and reach people quickly when they are in danger, including those who may already be in a life-threatening situation at sea.
Citymesh provides the operational expertise
Citymesh, a specialist operator of advanced drone systems, provides the operational backbone of the deployment: BVLOS drone operations, system integration, operator training, regulatory guidance and technical support. The ability to fly beyond visual line of sight is central to the project, because the objective is to maintain awareness across a large stretch of coastline rather than fly short flights within sight of a single team. It is Citymesh's expertise that makes those operations possible and compliant.
The deployment is currently a pilot. After the test phase, the four zones will evaluate the operational benefits of the system and decide whether and how the technology could become part of their regular operations.
The initiative illustrates a wider shift: long-endurance drones are increasingly being considered for persistent surveillance by police and emergency services, particularly where BVLOS operations make it possible to monitor much larger areas than conventional drone deployments allow.
For Avy, the project is a clear demonstration of the model behind everything we build: aircraft engineered for endurance and range, put to work by expert operators such as Citymesh, in the hands of the organisations that rely on them.
Press contact Avy Dominik Kondziela E-mail: dominik@avy.eu