Prox Dynamics

Prox Dynamics is a Norwegian company, based in Hvalstad, that developed the Black Hornet (PD-100) pocket-sized reconnaissance helicopter drone, one of the smallest UAVs ever fielded by a military. FLIR Systems, now Teledyne FLIR, acquired the company in November 2016 for approximately US$134 million.

History and products

Prox Dynamics built its business around the PD-100 Black Hornet, a palm-sized "Personal Reconnaissance System" that lets a single soldier carry, launch and operate a covert surveillance drone without a dedicated UAV team. The company's breakthrough came in 2012, when the British Army ordered the system for its Brigade Reconnaissance Force; by the time of the FLIR acquisition in 2016, Prox Dynamics said it had produced roughly 4,000 Black Hornet airframes and sold the system to about 15 nations, and had introduced a night-capable infrared version in 2015. After the acquisition, Prox Dynamics became FLIR's unmanned aerial systems line of business, and its Black Hornet design was continued and enlarged into the later Black Hornet 3 and Black Hornet 4, now built and sold by Teledyne FLIR (formed when Teledyne Technologies acquired FLIR in 2021).

Products on this site

The Black Hornet (PD-100) is Prox Dynamics' original pocket-sized reconnaissance drone; its successors, the Black Hornet 3 and Black Hornet 4, are now built by Teledyne FLIR.