Paladin introduces Knighthawk 2.0 to accelerate drone-as-first-responder deployments

Paladin has rolled out Knighthawk 2.0, a purpose-built unmanned aircraft aimed at shrinking the time between emergency calls and overhead intelligence. The firm frames the platform as infrastructure for Drone-as-a-First-Responder (DFR) programs: an autonomous asset that can be launched from fixed sites to arrive on scene in about seventy seconds and stream live imagery to incident commanders. Hardware choices emphasize mission endurance and transit speed, with flight times exceeding forty minutes and cruising capability above seventy kilometers per hour so single sorties can cover broad urban footprints. The sensor suite blends a 4K wide-angle camera, a 10x optical zoom, and a 640p thermal imager to support both visual search and heat-signature detection under low-visibility conditions. Communications are built around cellular broadband (5G/LTE) to sustain continuous video and telemetry links over long distances, reducing reliance on line-of-sight radio. Paladin highlights U.S. manufacture and compliance with NDAA sourcing rules to appeal to agencies with strict supply-chain and security requirements. The company is already engaging partners and customers internationally, naming deployments or collaborations in the United States, India and Portugal and integrating its package with Beyond Vision’s autonomous platforms for wider NATO-aligned compatibility. Paladin chose the World Defense Show to debut the system, signaling a dual commercial and civil-security sales strategy that targets both municipal emergency services and defense-adjacent procurement channels. Operationally, the design addresses two persistent constraints for first responders: rapid time-to-overhead and the ability to sustain observation without frequent battery swaps or handoffs. Yet scaling DFR as municipal infrastructure will hinge on regulatory acceptance, airspace integration, and data governance—areas where interoperability, cybersecurity and privacy safeguards will be decisive for procurement decisions. For agencies, the Knighthawk 2.0 represents a concrete option to shorten reconnaissance timelines and augment situational awareness; for Paladin, it is a step toward selling systems as networked public-safety assets rather than one-off aircraft. The product release therefore tightens the link between advanced airframe capabilities and program-level ambitions to institutionalize drones in emergency response workflows.