Morocco and Harmattan AI to Build 2,000km-Range Irifi Strike Drone Locally
Morocco has signed a letter of intent with French startup Harmattan AI to develop and manufacture the Irifi, a long-range one-way attack drone, on Moroccan soil. The deal, announced at the opening of the Marrakech Air Show, would give the kingdom a locally built deep-strike capability with a declared range of up to 2,000 kilometers.
Photo: Royal Moroccan Armed Forces personnel training alongside partner units. Credit: U.S. Army photo by Avery Schneider, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Harmattan AI Morocco and the kingdom’s National Defense Administration signed the agreement on 7 October, the opening day of the Marrakech Air Show 2026, Infodefensa reported. The document sets a framework for Morocco to acquire, develop and produce the Irifi domestically, though neither side has disclosed quantities, a contract value or a delivery schedule. At this stage it remains a letter of intent rather than a firm order.
What the Irifi is
According to Harmattan AI, the Irifi is a single-use, long-range attack drone built to strike targets deep in an adversary’s rear area. The company says it is launched from a mobile container, flies at low altitude to reduce its radar signature, and navigates without reliance on satellite positioning, instead combining onboard processing with optical terminal guidance for what the company describes as metric-level accuracy. Harmattan AI has not disclosed the warhead or payload. Because its guidance does not depend on GPS or GLONASS signals, the company says the system is designed to keep working even if an adversary jams or spoofs satellite navigation — a vulnerability that has dogged cheaper loitering munitions elsewhere.
Mouad M’Ghari, the company’s CEO and co-founder, has positioned the Irifi between mass-produced, low-cost one-way attack drones such as Iran’s Shahed family and higher-end precision-guided cruise missiles, pairing a relatively long range with a lower unit cost than a traditional missile.
Building on a June partnership
The letter of intent extends a strategic partnership Harmattan AI signed with the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) in June 2026, which covers local manufacturing capacity, a dedicated AI-for-defense research center, and cooperation with Moroccan universities. Harmattan AI, founded in Paris in 2024, has since opened an engineering center in Rabat and recruited around 50 engineers there, building toward what the company describes as full production in Morocco rather than simple final assembly of imported kits. A factory is planned near Casablanca, though no construction timeline has been given.
Beyond the Irifi, Harmattan AI’s product line includes the Sonora and Barkhane platforms for reconnaissance and strike, the Gobi and Tempest short-range air-defense interceptors, the Sahara synthetic-aperture-radar ISR drone, the Namib electronic-warfare system and the Kalahari command-and-control suite — an unusually broad catalog for a two-year-old company.
Part of a broader modernization drive
The Irifi announcement lands in the middle of the Marrakech Air Show 2026, where Morocco has used its own aerospace showcase to advance a run of procurement and industrial deals. The FAR has recently taken delivery of its first F-16 Block 72 fighters, operates AH-64E Apache attack helicopters, and has expanded its heavy-lift logistics fleet. Morocco already fields armed Chinese- and Turkish-origin drones, and a 2026 DefenceMENA review found it holds one of the continent’s largest fleets of armed Class-III UAVs. An indigenous 2,000km-class strike drone would sit above that existing tactical fleet, giving Rabat a deep-strike option it does not currently possess domestically.
Why it matters for Africa
If the letter of intent converts into a signed contract, Morocco would become one of the first countries in Africa or the wider MENA region to host full local production of a Western-origin loitering munition, rather than licensed assembly alone. That would mark a shift from the kingdom’s established model of buying finished systems from the United States, France and Israel toward co-developing and manufacturing its own strike capability — echoing the localization push already under way with its F-16 and Apache fleets. For Algeria, Morocco’s principal strategic rival, a 2,000km-range strike drone based in Morocco would extend potential reach deep into Algerian territory, adding another layer to an already fast-moving regional arms competition. For the rest of the continent, the deal is a marker of how far a credible African defence-industrial base can go when a government commits capital and political backing to a foreign start-up early, rather than waiting for mature, proven systems.
Sources
- Infodefensa: “Marruecos suma y sigue: desarrollará y fabricará el dron kamikaze Irifi, de Harmattan AI, hasta 2.000 kilómetros de alcance”
- DefenceMENA: Israel, US and Europe Pack Morocco’s Marrakech Airshow 2026
- DefenceMENA: Morocco’s First F-16 Block 72 Completes Maiden Test Flight
