German drone manufacturer Wingcopter and Ghana-based Continental Drones Ltd have announced that they will set up an African logistics network over the next five years that will rely on the use of 12,000 drones. This would be the ‘world’s largest commercial drone deployment’ according to the two companies.

The model to be involved in the project is the fully electric Wingcopter 198, which will be used both on new logistics routes and to improve the reliability and speed of existing supply networks (including those involved in the distribution of medical supplies).

In their press release the two companies said that this will allow many African countries to leapfrog existing logistics standards and that the resulting supply chains will be “much faster, cheaper, more sustainable, and more efficient than the development of conventional ground- based infrastructure with all its unhealthy and climate-damaging emissions”. The two companies did not give details on how the drones would integrate with current airspace traffic.

Image: Wingcopter