U.S. Special Forces test Polish-built Tiguar-M drone

U.S. Army Green Berets from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) flew Tiguar-M drones during Exercise Balikatan 2026 in Laoag, Philippines. The drone footage didn’t come from a familiar American manufacturer; it came from uAvionics, a Polish company that few U.S. defense watchers had heard of before this week.

The sighting was flagged by open-source intelligence expert Abraxas Spa, which noted that at least one of the Tiguar-M units appeared to be modified with a SATCOM antenna, a telling detail. A satellite communications antenna on a fixed-wing drone suggests the Green Berets weren’t just flying a surveillance platform around a training range. They were probing the aircraft’s ability to operate beyond line-of-sight, potentially over the kinds of vast maritime and island distances that define the Pacific theater. In a region where the distances between contested islands can stretch hundreds of miles, that capability matters enormously.

The Tiguar-M is a purpose-built military platform with a 4.1-meter wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of 25 kilograms. Its hybrid drive system, which uAvionics brands as AirHybrid, gives it a claimed endurance of more than 20 hours and a maximum range of 1,800 kilometers — figures that, if validated in field conditions, would place it well ahead of most comparable systems in its weight class. Cruise speed sits at 90 km/h, with a top speed of 160 km/h. The airframe carries up to 11 kilograms of payload, accommodating electro-optical sensors, infrared sensors, or combined EO/IR gimbals capable of delivering HD video with 30x zoom. A triple-redundant flight controller system — three separate autopilots running simultaneously — means the aircraft can continue flying even after two of those units fail. A recovery parachute adds another layer of survivability.

Logistics matter as much as specs, especially for special operations units that operate with minimal footprint. The Tiguar-M can be broken down into a fuselage, two detachable wings, and two tail booms with stabilizers, and reassembled in two minutes. It fits in a carry case or cloth covers. For a Green Beret team that might be operating out of a truck or a small forward position, those are not minor conveniences.

The platform also sits outside the constraints of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the U.S. export control regime that governs the transfer of American defense technologies. That ITAR-free status matters considerably when it comes to allied interoperability and procurement flexibility. Nations interested in acquiring the Tiguar-M don’t have to navigate the same licensing bureaucracy that comes with buying from U.S. defense contractors. It also complies with both Polish civil aviation authority requirements for drones under 25 kilograms and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s threshold for systems under 55 pounds.

Exercise Balikatan 2026 has drawn more than 17,000 military personnel from the United States, the Philippines, Australia, Japan, Canada, France, and New Zealand, running from April 20 through May 8. Special Operations Command Pacific assigned 1st SFG to the exercise, with the unit’s UAS training sessions focused specifically on long-range communications — a priority that aligns directly with the Pacific Command’s broader concern about contested communications environments in any future conflict with China. The Philippines sits at the heart of multiple overlapping territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and any U.S. military operation in the region would depend heavily on persistent, long-endurance ISR assets capable of operating well beyond visual range.

What makes the Tiguar-M’s appearance significant isn’t simply that a Polish drone showed up at a major American exercise. It’s the context. Special Forces operators are typically among the most selective in the force when it comes to the equipment they put in the field. They don’t test platforms for the fun of it. When Green Berets show up to one of the Army’s most consequential regional exercises with a foreign-made, long-endurance fixed-wing drone fitted with a SATCOM antenna, the message embedded in that decision is worth paying attention to.

The U.S. military’s appetite for long-endurance fixed-wing UAS at the lower end of the weight spectrum has grown substantially as the lessons of Ukraine — where persistent ISR coverage has proven decisive — filter into planning for potential high-end conflicts. The Tiguar-M’s claimed range and endurance, combined with its modular portability, makes it a candidate worth evaluating seriously. Whether this Balikatan appearance was a demonstration, an evaluation, or something further along the procurement pipeline, uAvionics has now landed its platform squarely in the middle of an Indo-Pacific exercise that the Pentagon and its allies treat as a strategic bellwether. That’s not a small thing for a Polish drone company. And for the Green Berets who flew it over Laoag, it may be the beginning of something.