# Ethiopia operating Serbian Yugoimport VTOL drone

- Link: https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/
- Published: 2021-11-17T09:06:00+01:00
- Author: Patrick Kenyette

The UAE may have supplied armed Serbian Yugoimport VTOL drone to assist the Ethiopian
National Defense Force in the ongoing Tigray War.

Recent unreleased photographs reportedly taken in June 2021 in the Tigray Region
appears to show Emirati-supplied Serbian Yugoimport VTOL being handled by Ethiopian
soldiers.

Open-source aircraft tracking websites recorded more than 50 cargo flights to Ethiopia
in 53 days between August and September 2021. The flights were carried out by an
Il-76 cargo aircraft registered in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan but owned by UAE-based
company Fly Sky Airlines. 45 of these flights originated from the UAE.

![](military.africa/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/uae-made-drone-in-Ethiopia.jpg)

A llarge vertical rotary-wing VTOL combat UAVs armed with two 120mm mortar bombs
spotted in Ethiopia.

The same freight carrier had previously been used to deliver equipment to Libya.

Recently, photographs of armed Serbian Yugoimport VTOL said to have been taken in
the Maychew area of the Tigray region this summer appeared on social media.

ADVERTISEMENT

The images showed a large vertical rotary-wing VTOL combat UAVs armed with two 120mm
mortar bombs. The design of these aircraft is identical to UAVs that were destroyed
in Yemen by Houthi forces and operated then by UAE-backed units.

In November 2020, advisors to the Regional President of Tigray [accused Ethiopian forces of being assisted by Emirati UAVs](https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/military.africa/2020/11/tigray-uae-drones-supports-ethiopia)
located at the UAE airbase in Assab, Eritrea (the airbase was dismantled in February
2021).

In a tweet, Tigray and TPLF leader Getachew Ruda claimed that United Arab Emirates
UAVs are supporting Ethiopian forces and Assab city of Eritrea is serving as drone
base for UAE.

ADVERTISEMENT

In response, Chief Commander of the Ethiopian Air Force, Maj. Gen. Yilma Merdas 
insists that Ethiopia is using its own fleet of drones against TPLF. He subsequently
[displayed a plethora of both commercial and military grade surveillance drones, ](https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/military.africa/2020/11/ethiopia-reveals-drones-used-in-tigray-war)
with the notable absence of any combat unmanned system.

For a while now, [the UAE is known to operate a secretive drone base in Assab airport](https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/military.africa/2018/08/uae-deploys-wing-loong-ii-ucav-to-eritrea),
in Eritrea to support military operations across the Red Sea in Yemen, and has deployed
several [Chinese-made Wing Loong I unmanned combat aerial vehicles. ](https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/military.africa/?s=Wing+Loong+)
In 2015, a Wing Loong drone was spotted at the Assab airbase.

[Although Ethiopia is confirmed to be fielding Iranian-made Mohajer-6 unmanned combat system.](https://www.military.africa/2021/11/ethiopia-likely-operating-emirati-combat-uavs/military.africa/2021/08/ethiopia-operating-iranian-made-mohajer-6-drone)

ADVERTISEMENT

At least two UAVs and a GCS were spotted and are most likely for evaluation before
making a larger purchase.

In August 1, remains of what appears to be a Qaem precision guided munition was 
recovered from an alleged drone strike conducted in Tigray.

### _Related_