Airbus plans drone version of helicopter it builds in Mississippi
There's no word yet on where the company will produce the uncrewed version of its popular H145.
Chloe Mitchell 
Airbus is pushing the boundaries of flight, officially unveiling a drone iteration of a twin-engine helicopter that has long been a fixture of its Mississippi manufacturing footprint.
Introducing the U145
Debuting at the ILA Berlin airshow, the new U145 serves as the uncrewed counterpart to the manufacturer's versatile H145 helicopter. While the traditional H145 is a workhorse utilized across civilian, emergency, and military sectors, the U145 is currently presented as a full-scale mockup. Airbus has signaled an aggressive development timeline, with a maiden flight targeted for later this year and full service integration anticipated by the early 2030s.
Manufacturing and Market Demand
While the company builds the majority of its H145s in Donauwörth, Germany, its Columbus, Mississippi, facility remains a critical part of the production puzzle. That site has long produced the single-engine H125 and the UH-72 Lakota, the latter being a military relative of the H145. In 2024, the Mississippi plant expanded its operations to include H145 assembly to keep pace with intense demand, with one executive previously telling industry news site flightglobal.com that the model was “selling like crazy.”
Multi-Mission Autonomy
Airbus is positioning the U145 as a modular, mission-agnostic solution. The platform is designed to tackle everything from high-volume cargo transport to disaster response, firefighting, and surveillance. Furthermore, the company highlighted its potential for advanced roles, such as serving as a "drone mothership" or participating in crewed-uncrewed teaming operations.
“With the U145, we are offering our customers an autonomous, uncrewed version of our H145 helicopter - combining the proven airframe, power and useful load of the H145 with the autonomy of a UAS,” said Matthieu Louvot, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. He noted that the company is collaborating with autonomous mission partners to broaden the UAS ecosystem throughout Europe.
Closer to home, the Airbus U.S. Space & Defense division is working with partners to propose a U.S.-specific development for the Marine Corps: a fully autonomous version of the Lakota. Production details for the U145 platform remain under wraps for the time being.
