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Air · Reconnaissance aircraft

CIAC COELUM

Small Colombian surveillance aircraft with documented military sales and a separate VTOL development.

Role & capabilities

  • Tactical reconnaissance
  • Infrastructure observation
  • Environmental survey
Order / production commitmentOrder / production commitment
Primary domain
Air
System type
Reconnaissance aircraft
Developer / manufacturer
CIAC
Origin / production countries
Colombia
Other names
No additional names recorded
Variants / configurations
Standard hand-launched version; COELUM VTOL prototype
Operators / programme customers
Colombian Aerospace Force — purchased systems

Evidence & current status

Three system sales documented in company reporting; VTOL prototype testing does not establish VTOL service.

COELUM is CIAC's small reconnaissance aircraft for military and civilian observation. The established industrial version is a fixed-wing, hand-launched design. CIAC's 2022 management report distinguishes that baseline from a proposed vertical-take-off-and-landing derivative, whose engineering work was beginning separately. The two configurations should not be treated as interchangeable aircraft simply because they share a name.

The current product page advertises more than sixty minutes of endurance and describes surveillance, reconnaissance and environmental-monitoring applications. This profile uses that conservative current claim rather than combining historical test flights and different endurance figures into one supposed standard configuration.

CIAC's 2023 report says sales of three systems to the Colombian aerospace force were secured. It also describes flight testing of the COELUM VTOL prototype. A system can contain several aircraft and supporting equipment, so a system order is not an aircraft count. The available procurement evidence supports an order and production record, while the exact acceptance state of every delivered system remains to be verified. Colombian design claims are attributed to CIAC rather than converted into an independently audited percentage of domestic components.

Sourced specifications

Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.

SpecificationReported valueContext & source
AirframeFixed-wing standard version; VTOL derivative separately under developmentPublished baseline for this model; maxima are not necessarily simultaneous. Source ↗
Launch / recoveryHand launch for standard versionPublished baseline for this model; maxima are not necessarily simultaneous. Source ↗
PropulsionNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
DimensionsNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
MassNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
EnduranceMore than 60 minutesPublished baseline for this model; maxima are not necessarily simultaneous. Source ↗
RangeNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
SpeedNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
AltitudeNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
PayloadNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
SensorsNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗
Communications / navigationNot established in the reviewed public sources.Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗

Publication history

  • — Added in the September 2026 global coverage review, with sources, configuration limits and explicit data gaps.

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Follow the evidence

Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.

  1. Current COELUM product (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer / programme
  2. CIAC 2022 management report (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer / programme
  3. CIAC 2023 management report (opens in a new tab)Manufacturer / programme

Explore the connections

Air · Coverage auditLatin America

Latin America defence drone coverage audit

4 original research topics reviewed: 0 resolved, 3 partially resolved and 1 still open. The remaining register identifies specific evidence needs.

Reviewed 21 Sept 2026Read