Fixed-wing UAV under a ram-air canopy above the landing area
APCo Defense Europe · EU landing systems

Ultralight
innovation.
Mission strength.

High-performance descent, recovery and protection systems for UAVs, tactical platforms and aerospace missions where the system has to work the first time.

Find your solution

Search by product, platform or environment.

The same recovery problem behaves differently at altitude, over water, in rough terrain or on a high-speed platform. Start with the condition that defines your mission.

Full-turnkey capability

All services

One partner from requirement to deployment.

APCo brings recovery-system engineering, textile know-how, testing and production into one accountable development cycle.

  1. 01

    Define

    Mission needs, constraints, cost and timeline.

  2. 02

    Design

    Recovery architecture, lightweight materials and analysis.

  3. 03

    Prototype

    Build, test materials and assemble for validation.

  4. 04

    Test

    Deployment sequences, ground and aerial drops, data.

  5. 05

    Produce

    Traceable serial manufacturing, QC and delivery.

  6. 06

    After sale

    Manuals, training, repairs, repacking and lifecycle support.

Custom-made products

Configured around the platform, not the other way around.

Use a proven architecture, combine systems or define a new one. The result is engineered around payload, deployment envelope, landing energy and mission profile.

See the system in motion

From deployment to recovery.

The full film shows deployment, descent and recovery in context. It loads only on click — until then no connection to YouTube is made.

Working with us

Capability includes the route to contract.

Dual-use export, end-use controls and quality expectations are part of the program context. We surface them early so technical progress can translate into deliverable hardware.

Compliance

Berry Amendment

US-origin textile and parachute solutions for defense procurement.

Compliance

Wassenaar Arrangement

Dual-use export classification and delivery support.

Compliance

DFARS & BAA

Materials, sourcing, cybersecurity and US-contract readiness.

Compliance

ISO / AS

Quality systems aligned with aerospace and military requirements.

Compliance

ITAR & EAR

Experience with controlled defense articles and dual-use goods.

Compliance

NIST 800-171

Secure handling of sensitive project data.

Compliance

Offset programmes

Industrial participation and international contract support.

Compliance

Customs & export

Cross-border logistics and import/export clearance.

Questions teams ask

Built for the hard questions.

What platforms can APCo support?

From small tactical UAVs through fixed-wing and VTOL platforms to helicopter systems, cargo delivery and high-altitude parachute platforms such as HALO and HAHO. What decides it is the mission profile, payload and deployment conditions rather than the platform category alone. Two aircraft of equal weight can need different systems.

Can the system be customised?

Yes. Recovery systems are matched to the platform, not the other way round. Available architectures include steerable ram-air canopies, square, cruciform and round canopies, airbags and ballistic deployment systems, singly or combined. Which one carries depends on payload, deployment envelope, permissible impact energy and the space available inside the aircraft.

How is reliability demonstrated?

Through testing, not assurances. That covers deployment sequences, ground and air drops, analysis of the recorded data and performance assessment, embedded in aerospace and military quality processes. The evidence is documented and can be mapped item by item to procurement requirements, rather than appearing only as a summary result.

What weight range is covered?

From mini drones of roughly one kilogram up to UAV and cargo payloads above 1,000 kilograms. Weight alone does not settle it: only together with deployment speed, permissible sink rate and operating environment does it become clear which system carries. Suitability is therefore defined for the specific mission.

Define your project

Bring the requirement.
We will define the system.

Start a technical conversation