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Australian drone technology company Freespace Operations has achieved “cooperative lift” to balance and carry loads between the company’s Callisto 50 heavy-lift drones.
The milestone, using multiple drones to ferry loads up to 100 kilograms, is envisioned to enable drones to complete missions previously limited to helicopters or large bespoke airframes.
The capability has reportedly already secured the company a multimillion-dollar contract with an international defence customer in the Asia–Pacific region.
Cooperative lift is expected to offer safer, cheaper and faster alternatives to traditional delivery of cargo performed by helicopters or aircraft. Such missions include those delivering cargo at sea to moving equipment in hazardous environments.
“Whilst we’re used to seeing drones fly in patterns for light shows, getting them to physically work together to carry weight is a completely different challenge that we call cooperative lift. Universities and leading drone manufacturers worldwide have tried for years to solve cooperative lift with limited success,” Freespace Operations co-founder Ken King said.
“Our breakthrough proves it can be done safely, reliably and at scale. We can now multiply the lifting power of a single drone up to four times while retaining all the flexibility of smaller, modular systems. This development will significantly increase the range of tasks that can be assigned to drones in a variety of heavy industry and defence applications.
“Whether it is carrying supplies to a moving ship, mineral exploration, mining logistics, stringing new power lines or delivering life-saving supplies in an emergency situation, this breakthrough will mean our customers can get more done with their drone fleets than ever before.”
The company has delivered 29 Australian government and Defence contracts worth more than $9 million, alongside enterprise projects with energy infrastructure leaders such as Infravision and Enerven.
The cooperative lift breakthrough builds on Freespace’s “Ship Ops” technology, recently showcased at Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, where Callisto 50 drones demonstrated ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore logistics operations.
“Cooperative lift was an incredibly difficult technological challenge, both from a hardware and software perspective. Because the Callisto 50 is already one of the most capable and reliable platforms in its class, we were able to unlock cooperative lift by building on a proven system that we knew was capable of being scaled in this way,” said Leonard Hall, Freespace co-founder and chief technology officer.
“It might seem intuitive at first, but accounting for all the different variables of flight across two or more drones is no small feat. The movement of the weight, and of course the wind and weather, make it one of the most difficult challenges in drone flight.
“We are immensely proud to bring this capability online, a world first in our industry.”
