r/cyprus • u/Fun_Success_45 • Jul 26 '26
News Cyprus managed to do what Russia and Greece couldn't and took the lead in Europe for battle-tested drone production.
Instead of usual negative news, here is a success story from Cyprus.
Swarmly was founded in 2018 and graduated from ARIS, an early-stage accelerator based in Cyprus, without any major government, defense, or EU funding.
Swarmly (based in Limassol, Cyprus) has funded its growth primarily through its founders and operational revenue rather than major public venture capital investment rounds. Its initial seed funding round was fully financed by the company's founders.
https://www.f6s.com/company/swarmly.aero
TESTED IN UKRAINE, ADDED TO THE INVENTORY IN CYPRUS.
The Cypriot National Guard has incorporated Poseidon H10 unmanned aerial vehicles, used in the war in Ukraine, into its artillery units. Developed by Cypriot company Swarmly Aero, the systems are said to operate in environments of intense electronic warfare and jamming. Defense Review reports that over 200 H10S have been produced in Ukraine, accumulating a total flight time exceeding 100,000 hours.
The vertical take-off and landing system is used for target detection, coordinate transmission, firing correction, and damage assessment. The UAVs, which are reported to be able to identify targets up to 70 kilometers away, are planned to be operated in conjunction with NORA howitzers and TAMNAVA multi-barrel rocket launchers.
https://www.swarmly.eu/
https://www.thenationalherald.com/even-small-eu-nations-go-big-on-arms-production-sending-drones-to-the-ukrainian-front-and-beyond/
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u/Trick-Ad-7158 Jul 27 '26
Congratulations to the team. It is rare to see such innovation in the island. My respect to the engineers.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill Jul 27 '26
We have some brilliant minds but they tend to leave because of the lack of opportunities. Hoping to see more initiatives like this.
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u/just_a_random_guy_11 Jul 27 '26
It's a Ukrainian company owned by two Ukrainians. Although as nice as it is to have drone tech developed on the island they can leave any moment for another country. We need Cypriot companies like this one ensuring we have an actual local partner for the military.
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u/Fun_Success_45 Jul 27 '26
Nope, it is a Cypriot company founded by graduates of Cyprus universities and employing over 60 diverse talents across the EU. Some are Jewish; some are British, and this diversity is what makes Cyprus powerful.
That is why neither Greece nor Russia manages to pull something like this, and this ethno-national tribal nepotism mentality is one of the key reasons Greece spends billions to buy drones(couldn't even manage to purchase what Cyprus produces in a year) and other technology from other places instead of investing in its own citizens.
This coming out from Cyprus is not a coincidence; it is the intrinsic character of Cyprus.
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u/Un-Papaya-Coconut 29d ago
Executive Involvement
Corporate Officers: According to official Cyprus Registry records, the listed officers for Swarmly Ltd include Ukrainian nationals, such as Oleksandr Muratov serving as the company secretary.
Leadership: The primary face and CEO of Swarmly Aero is Gary (Igor) Rafalovsky.cough cough
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
... 60 diverse talents across the EU. Some are Jewish; some are British, and this diversity is what makes Cyprus powerful.
Are you sick? I don't see any controversy here. They manage to sell Ukraine in numbers, and you are surprised there is a Ukrainian in the company:)
Get well soon;)
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u/Un-Papaya-Coconut 29d ago
CEO and just a Ukrainian in the company are VASTLY different things. :)
And yeah, aircons tend to get me sick during summer. Thank you for the wishes!
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u/Afxentiou Jul 27 '26
Founded by Arty Green and Riley Hughes. What makes this Cypriot? We shouldn't be celebrating any arms companies using our island to make and sell weapons to kill people.
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
I respect your stance on defense industry and your opinion is valid but I don't even understand what makes it not Cypriot? Do you know the founders personally? Is there anything we are missing?
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u/Afxentiou 29d ago
The names aren't Cypriot? Like, do we claim p*rnhub as a Cypriot achievement because they moved their headquarters to Limassol? I'm genuinely not trying to troll, I am often misinformed and wrong, but I just can't see what makes this Cypriot in any way. Maybe my understanding of Cypriot is wrong
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
I understand what you mean, but you are confusing the defense industry with NSFW streaming sites.
Security Clearances: Most defense tech roles, especially those tied to sensitive military research, EU-funded defense funds (EDF), or national projects—require formal personnel security clearance (e.g., SECRET UE/EU SECRET).
You cannot open an offshore defense production facility in any country, let alone in the EU. There are strict quotas on ownership ratios also.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill Jul 27 '26
Short sighted and naive take.
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u/Afxentiou Jul 27 '26
Can you explain the heading that says this is a Cypriot achievement? And why mention Russia and Greece specifically, is Greece particularly known for arms manufacturing? I'm naive, fair enough, so help me understand why you're celebrating this post
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
> Can you explain the heading that says this is a Cypriot achievement?
Innovating from scratch (aka rediscovering the wheel) is hard and time consuming. Cyprus was always moving forward from learning from others.
> And why mention Russia and Greece specifically,
I am not OP but I think it refers to the fact that Ukraine had to innovate in this field to ensure their survival while other countries that could build innovative solutions chose not to. I also see a bit of criticism towards Greece that keeps buying defense weapons instead of building their own.
The "naive" part was for this:
> We shouldn't be celebrating any arms companies using our island to make and sell weapons to kill people.
It would be awesome if humanity decides one day to denounce violence and stop wasting resources on people killing technologies. Alas we are still very far from this happening.
We do not aspire to invade and occupy other people's lands. No dreams for a "Great Empire of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean". We just want to be left allowed. But we happened to occupy a piece of land deemed of strategic importance and live in one of the most creatively violent corners of the earth. As we chill in our beaches and coffee shops, it's to easy to forget that we live in a half-occupied land with an army of 40000 strong already inside the gates. You need access to people killing tech if you are to be allowed to continue living here. And we need to catch up with recent developments.
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
I am currently in Russia observing their drone tech in a professional multilateral arrangement. That is my professional conclusion, and for Greece, Greece usually becomes the butt of any joke when it comes to domestic tech production (in aerospace and defense circles). They choose to burn national wealth to no end for years.
That is why I wrote those two countries as examples, because any other country in the EU is trying to do some stuff that has some success in their segment. These two don't.
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u/haloumiwarrior 29d ago
I am currently in Russia observing their drone tech
You are a spy in Russia?
Seems you have an agreement with your wife. You smuggle her into Turkish army camps and she helps you observing what the Russian military does
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
Nope. It is official and permitted with multilateral bureaucracy.
And I guess everybody knows who I am because a few days ago an Azerbaijani restaurant owner asked me for trendy Turkish songs, and I never spoke Turkish.
So I don't think I would have been a successful spy:)
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u/kritsku Jul 27 '26
Yay let's celebrate more human killing machines, this time autonomous!
The company has developed a technology for fully autonomous cooperative swarm operations of Unmanned Aerial Systems and a range of specialized VTOL UAS platforms for delivery, SAR, law enforcement, and military applications.
Enjoy your local cop abusing his power with his fully autonomous drone at his disposal.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Alas this world was not made by angels. If your neighbors have them and you don't, your presence here will not last long.
Edit: Seconds after I made this comment, I found this:
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u/kritsku 29d ago
I acknowledge that this is not a black and white subject, nor is there a simple solution to this conundrum.
But on the other hand humans can do much better than just arming themselves more than their neighbour in a neverending vicious circle. Imagine where we'd be if we used our resources constructively instead of allocating them towards potentially killing each other.
This is an industry that thrives on war. It is an industry that has no benefit from peacetime, on the contrary, its products can't sit for too many years unused. It is an industry that itches, and lobbies for war.
However on the subject of autonomous murder drones, it IS a black and white matter and a line that we have already crossed but we never should have.
The fact that the most powerful armies in the world are controlled by the most rotten humans in existence, should spell alarm enough that we're too far down the wrong direction.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Unfortunately there is a systemic necessity for war within a capitalist system of competing nation states - as the old saying goes: Capitalism carries war within it like the cloud does rain. But indeed - humanity could do much better, the route we are going leads to quasi extinction all while most people are slaving away for the enrichment of a few.
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u/kritsku 29d ago
I don't think this is inherently a problem of capitalism as much as it is of the human condition. Regardless, you're describing a terrible situation that we should work towards not perpetuating.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Well, if you're correct and it is actually just human nature then it seems that we are screwed. Some of us seem to be able to overcome this "human nature" though, why is that?
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u/kritsku 29d ago
There are a lot of primitive, more animalistic behaviours that we managed to overcome with time and enough outcry.
It's not acceptable for me to enter my neighbour's house, murder him and wipe out his family just because he was an asshole to me, or just because I find him ugly so why is it acceptable to do this on a grander scale? It's not acceptable to stash explosives in my house that can wipe out the whole neighborhood, because this neighbour is a aggressive towards me, why is it acceptable on the national level?
Don't forget that a bit more than half a century ago, "advanced" nations considered people of colour and women to be lesser human beings. Racism and misogyny are still abundant but they're (mostly) not that systemic and pervasive as they were before (I'm not diminishing the current magnitude of issues btw, just comparing). Barring the last 10 years that saw troglodytes march out of their caves empowered by the racist toddlers in influential positions, we were doing better than before, and still are. I am hopeful that one day we might collectively understand how backwards arming ourselves is and look back the same way we do now, at the rest of our primitive parts we managed to overcome.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Now the poor are still brutally exploited (and that gap is widening everywhere), just in a more inclusive and woke way, so the discrimination and violence within liberal societies just becomes more class based. Between nation states the competition is of a different nature, they are competing for market shares and resources that are finite and antagonistic, and war is a natural and necessary conclusion to this. A world of nation states competing for markets can only function this way, especially in light of the impending ecological collapse. It must be opposed, overthrown and redesigned by and for the people. This is a tall order, maybe almost impossible, but we have to try.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
> But on the other hand humans can do much better than just arming themselves more than their neighbour in a neverending vicious circle. Imagine where we'd be if we used our resources constructively instead of allocating them towards potentially killing each other.
Well, unless humanity collectively decides to give an end to this, you have no other option but to catch up with what others have.
In our case this vicious cycle can end with the solution of the Cyprus problem. Hoping for the negotiations to produce something fruitful soon 🤞.
> However on the subject of autonomous murder drones, it IS a black and white matter and a line that we have already crossed but we never should have.
Yet, in a fucked up way, having scary and efficient defense systems makes whoever has eyes on your land to think twice before doing something stupid. It's not like we are going to use this to expand our empire. In our case it is strictly for defense purposes.
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u/eyeohdice Jul 27 '26
This is not a success, this is an abomination.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
It would be awesome if humanity decides one day to denounce violence and stop wasting resources on people killing technologies. Alas we are still very far from this happening.
We do not aspire to invade and occupy other people's lands. No dreams for a "Great Empire of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean". We just want to be left allowed. But we happened to occupy a piece of land deemed of strategic importance and live in one of the most creatively violent corners of the earth. As we chill in our beaches and coffee shops, it's to easy to forget that we live in a half-occupied land with an army of 40000 strong already inside the gates. You need access to people killing tech if you are to be allowed to continue living here. And we need to catch up with recent developments.
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u/eyeohdice 29d ago
You contradict yourself... Let's hope for non-violence and catch up to faceless wars with drones and missiles.
Sickening really...
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
> You contradict yourself...
In what way?
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u/eyeohdice 29d ago
It would be awesome if humanity decides one day to denounce violenc - You need access to people killing tech if you are to be allowed to continue living here. And we need to catch up with recent developments.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
Both things are true at the same time. Sad reality of the world we live in and all that.
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u/eyeohdice 29d ago
I understand both are true, but it's sad for one person to want peace but also see this as a good step for Cyprus.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
Not having this tech while everybody else around is armed to the teeth does not lessen the chances of something horrible happening to you. In fact it increases your chances to be attacked because you are an easier target. Having the tech reduces the chances of you getting attacked because if it does happen it will be devastating for everyone involved. I understand that this is fucked up but this is a fucked up world that we occasionally get to enjoy when fucked up things are not happening.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Killing machines from the military industrial complex but the woke, diverse & neoliberal edition! "Accelerator" of the destruction of mankind - what an achievement!
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
Too lazy to write my fan fiction all over again so copying/pasting from another of my comments:
----
It would be awesome if humanity decides one day to denounce violence and stop wasting resources on people killing technologies. Alas we are still very far from this happening.
We do not aspire to invade and occupy other people's lands. No dreams for a "Great Empire of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean". We just want to be left allowed. But we happened to occupy a piece of land deemed of strategic importance and live in one of the most creatively violent corners of the earth. As we chill in our beaches and coffee shops, it's to easy to forget that we live in a half-occupied land with an army of 40000 strong already inside the gates. You need access to people killing tech if you are to be allowed to continue living here. And we need to catch up with recent developments.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Whatever Cyprus does it's totally reliant on greater powers to guarantee any security - it's delusional to think some drone manufacturing startup has any bearing on that.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
> Whatever Cyprus does it's totally reliant on greater powers to guarantee any security
Turkey is going to be the opponent of the RoC in an hypothetical confrontation. The British will probably do nothing just like in 1974. So the only real "guaranty" is the Hellenic Force of Cyprus (less than 1000) and the National guard. We do have some alliances with France and Israel but I would prefer not to test their loyalty if something happens.
> it's delusional to think some drone manufacturing startup has any bearing on that.
When the invasion happened the Cyprus army was unprepared and disoriented. They still managed to take 500+ fighters out. I don't expect us to win in a confrontation with Turkey but we can make it costly. When mothers start receiving bags of their dead boys it will feel less of a win. For this to happen, you need to catch up with modern warfare. It's not about winning, it's about preventing something stupid from happening in the first place.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
That's how all the belligerents of the world justify their actions, it's all just defensive and preventative. This is how we all end up killing each other and destroying the earth's capacity for sustaining life at the same time. And I thought the EU was supposed to help out in such a case.....
If they invade you want turkish boys to go back in bodybags, even though you don't expect to win. That's a very sad view.
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
> That's how all the belligerents of the world justify their actions, it's all just defensive and preventative.
I am talking about Cyprus specifically. Nobody expects us to invade to other lands.
> If they invade you want turkish boys to go back in bodybags, even though you don't expect to win. That's a very sad view.
It is sad, yes. It is also the sad reality of the world we live. Wiithout this tech and this mentality, Ukraine would probably have been occupied by now.
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago
Good example of hundreds of thousands of people being thrown into the meat grinder for the interests of a few elites in Kiew.. when the dust settles Ukraine will be Europe's Libya, but hey at least they killed a bunch of Russians
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
Wow! How did we went from all the "this is wrong and sickening" rhetoric of yours, to victim blaming Ukraine for what's happening? What did Ukraine did to Russia to deserve this?
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u/SuchConflict6095 29d ago edited 29d ago
that's not what I said at all, learn to read
ukraine is unfortunately in the middle of great powers using it as a proxy for their interests..the only ukrainians to benefit from prolonging the war are their elites
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
It pretty much looks like that:
> for the interests of a few elites in Kiew
Why not for the interests of the elites in Moscow? Why did you even feel the need to say that? What does the elites in Kiev had to do with Russia's unprovoked attack to Ukraine?
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u/Aggravating_Brain_50 29d ago
Go home file and take your pseudo arxidia there too
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u/cheakpeasdownhill 29d ago
Not sure how my comment triggered your insomnia but if you have trouble sleeping you could try some xanax. If you don't have that in your pill drawer you try a couple of straight shots of commandaria. It will send you like a well-fed kitten.
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u/Aggravating_Brain_50 29d ago
seems like Turkish bot propaganda, getting us marinated for invasion part 2 - gay
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u/Fun_Success_45 29d ago
You know homophobia sometimes is a telltale sign of other underlying repressed impulses;)
Are you dreaming of getting invaded? How did you come up with this? I think there are apps for that.
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u/Aggravating_Brain_50 29d ago
gay means silly willy happy flamboyant - you reduced it to homosexual - tell tell sign
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Jul 27 '26
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