Swift Engineering establishes a company in Kobe

See original article on JETRO

SWIFT Engineering Inc., founded in the US state of California in 1983, is a manufacturing company specialized in unmanned systems, autonomous control systems, robotics and advanced composites. Since its founding, the company has been involved in the development and manufacturing of over 500 racing car chassis (the frames for car bodies) that participate in car races such as the Atlantic Championship and Champ Car World Series. In 2000, the company diversified its business and began work in the aerospace field. It has been involved in the design of vehicles that are used, manned or unmanned, in space, in aerospace, in aviation, on land and underwater. It has been commissioned to develop and produce next generation parts by major aircraft makers, such as US Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Gulfstream.

After 2000, the company pivoted its main business to design of aircraft parts. It is currently focusing on the autonomously controlled drone “Swift 020” using its proprietary X-Blade Technology. The Swift 020 Unmanned Air System (UAS) takes off and lands straight up and down and transitions to efficient fixed-wing forward flight without additional launch and recovery equipment, allowing vast reduction of operational time and cost. The company aims to expand the system to provide a larger-scale platform for various uses, such as in the infrastructure, oil and gas, maritime, emergency service, logistics, agriculture, scientific research and surveillance markets.

Expecting increased demand for drones in the Japanese market, SWIFT Engineering established its first overseas base in Kobe, Hyogo in April 2018, a joint venture company with the Kobe Institute of Computing (KIC), Graduate School of Information Technology. The company’s primary business will evolve around the operation of drone “Swift 020” and the provisions of data services which will be based on software developed by Swift Engineering. It also plans to actively expand its operations not only in Japan but also in countries in Asia and Africa by utilizing international students enrolled in KIC Graduate School of Information Technology, as human resources.

To assist with the establishment of the company’s base in Japan, the JETRO Invest Japan Business Support Center (IBSC) provided consultation on registration, information on incentive programs and referred local government officials.