With South Africa facing a massive illegal immigration challenge, rooted in socioeconomic strains and porous borders, the country’s aerospace and defence company, Milkor, has presented a solution — its locally developed 380 medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The drone, showcased at the recent Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) 2026 exhibition in Pretoria, has been touted as an effective intervention to assist the Border Management Authority in securing the borders.
The BMA relies on integrated aerial surveillance and local industry partnerships to combat porous land borders and cross-border crime.
Statistics of the undocumented or irregular migrant population in South Africa range from three million to upwards of five million people, with some higher academic estimates largely drawn from neighbouring African countries because of regional economic disparities and political instability.
The Milkor 380, the largest UAV designed and built in Africa, is a fixed-wing aircraft weighing about 1.5 tonnes at take-off. It can remain aloft for more than 30 hours, travelling up to 4 000km.
Its primary role is surveillance, reconnaissance, monitoring and gathering intelligence.
While Milkor vice-president for Africa Daniel du Plessis has previously highlighted the importance of including modern technologies to address the porous borders, this week he was not in a position to confirm whether the company has signed a deal with the South African National Defence Force.
The Mail & Guardian understands that talks between Milkor and the government are at a sensitive stage. As the Milkor 380 platform has also drawn international interest and deployments abroad, Du Plessis confirmed that the drone has been operating in the Middle East “for some time now”.
“We are receiving positive feedback from end-users regarding the operational performance of the system and continuing to support them during their respective operations.
“Among the continuously changing geopolitical environments around the world, it is clear that monitoring and protection of borders has never been more important. UAVs are the best possible solution to protecting land and maritime borders — and the Milkor 380 stands in a class of its own when applied to these operations,” Du Plessis said.
Milkor has signed a memorandum of understanding with foreign firms, MBDA, Hanwha Systems, LIG D&A and Safran, to integrate sensors and payloads. The company’s MOU with the European missile systems specialist MBDA has been exploring the integration of the MBDA missile systems and other technologies onto Milkor’s medium altitude long-endurance UAV.
“Since AAD 2026, the team has been hard at work to continue building on the capabilities … Alongside the MOUs signed during the show, the Milkor 380 is earmarked to serve as one of the most versatile UAVs in its class. Our company’s growth has been extremely positive, with more confirmed orders for the Milkor 380. “We have achieved the domestic supply of 462 vehicles for the South African Army and multiple inter-national opportunities being concluded,” Du Plessis said.