The DJI Matrice 5T is DJI Enterprise’s new thermal drone for search and rescue, public safety and inspection teams. It brings 1K thermal imaging, full-colour night vision, 176x hybrid zoom and a 3km laser rangefinder together on one aircraft, with up to 59 minutes of flight time.
For teams flying the Matrice 4 series, this is the next step on. Below we cover what is new, who it is built for and what it changes on the job.
DJI Matrice 5T At A Glance
- Up to 59 minutes of flight time
- 1280×1024 thermal, with Super Resolution up to 2560×2048
- Full-colour night vision down to 0.01 lux
- 11x telephoto and up to 176x hybrid zoom
- Laser rangefinder with a range of up to 3km
- IP55 weather protection
- Airborne around 10 seconds after power-on, with a top speed of 23 m/s
Who The Matrice 5T Is Built For
DJI has positioned the Matrice 5T around two lead areas of work: search and rescue and inspection. That means police, fire and search and rescue teams on one side, and the inspection crews who look after critical assets on the other.
For response teams, four things stand out.
Sees In Colour At Night
The low-light sensor means night jobs aren’t thermal-only. More missing persons found, better evidence, and covert work stays covert.
Fits In Any Response Vehicle
Smaller and foldable, so it goes in a patrol car or SAR vehicle boot with the kit already in there. Every shift can carry one, no van or conversion needed.
Flies In Any Weather
IP55 means it’s available when it’s needed most. Bad weather is when people go missing.
Up Before The Crew Is Ready
Unfolds and is airborne in around 10 seconds. Faster time to eyes-on.
The DJI Matrice 5T Camera Payload
Wide, medium tele, telephoto and thermal cameras work alongside the laser rangefinder, so one flight can move from a wide search to a close look at the detail.
Zoom And Laser Rangefinder
The 11x telephoto camera offers up to 176x hybrid zoom, enough to read a number plate at 400m. For covert operations, that means teams can ID people and number plates from 400m without being seen and heard. On inspections, the 3x medium tele camera picks out cracks at 10m.
The laser rangefinder reaches 3,000m at normal incidence and 1,200m at an oblique angle. Instant positioning lets a pilot mark a target and share markers and measurements straight away. On a wildfire, crews can draw lines and polygons to measure the length and area of the fire front.
1K Thermal
The thermal camera has a native resolution of 1280×1024, with Super Resolution up to 2560×2048, giving four times the resolution for finding heat sources. Visible and thermal imagery can be viewed side by side in split-screen. If you are new to thermal, our guide to thermal drones explains how the technology works.
Full-Colour Night Vision
The 1/0.98-inch wide camera delivers full-colour night vision down to 0.01 lux, while the 11x telephoto switches to black-and-white night vision. The wide camera also time-syncs its photo position and orientation data, so it can collect mapping data during an inspection.
Safer Flying Near Wires And Structures
Obstacle sensing combines a 360-degree LiDAR with wire detection at 32m, mmWave radar facing forward, up and down, and omnidirectional colour vision. That matters for inspection crews working near overhead lines and for emergency teams flying low in unfamiliar areas.
Built-in ADS-B and Remote ID receivers alert pilots to nearby crewed aircraft and drones, helping to reduce collision risk in busy airspace.
Onboard AI That Spots Smoke And Fire
The Matrice 5T recognises more than 20 types of object on board, analysing visible and thermal imagery in parallel. In visible light, it can pick out people and the colours of their clothing, vehicle and vessel types, animals, and smoke and fire. Smoke and fire detection is an advancement for fire and rescue teams.
Open onboard computing lets teams import third-party models, DJI FlightHub 2 adds multimodal detection, and DJI Pilot 2 plugins support custom workflows.
Built For Long Days In The Field
- 59 min flights and continuous 3-battery ops, so no gaps in overwatch.
- 215.2Wh batteries with a two-stage latch for safer operation.
- An actively cooled 515W hub that charges three batteries in sequence at up to 2.3C.
- Up to 40km of transmission with relay, alongside Sub-2G and dual 4G links.
AS2 Speaker And AL2 Spotlight
The AS2 Speaker has 35W of rated power, reaches up to 120dB at 1m and has a 400m broadcast range. It handles live broadcast with echo and feedback suppression, recordings, imported audio and text-to-speech, and its strobe lights come in red, blue, green, white and yellow. Teams can use it for traffic control and directions, or to reassure rescue personnel and casualties.
The AL2 Spotlight runs at 60W, with flood and spot modes and steady or strobe output. Its gimbal tilts from -90° to +90°, so it can light a structure from directly below on a night inspection, or help a rescue team assess the condition of trapped people.
Mapping And Maritime Work
The Matrice 5T offers centimetre accuracy without ground control points, and DJI Terra applies electronic-shutter distortion correction to its photos. In-flight modelling builds point clouds and 2.5D models on the controller, turning 200 photos into a map in around 8 minutes. Keep each reconstruction under 400 photos.
For maritime patrols and offshore inspections, it can take off from and land on stationary or moving vessels. DJI recommends vessel speeds below 10 knots, wind below 5 m/s and a clear 3m x 3m area on deck.
Matrice 5T Or Matrice 5TD?
The Matrice 5T is flown by a pilot and goes wherever your team does. If you need automated flights from a fixed site, the DJI Matrice 5TD flies from DJI Dock 4 instead. For a closer look at what has changed from the previous generation, read our DJI Matrice 5T vs DJI Matrice 4T comparison.
Training, Approvals And Support
Most commercial and public safety operations need pilots qualified for the Specific category. Coptrz is a CAA Recognised Assessment Entity and runs the RPC-L1 Part A drone training course for teams that need it. For more complex operations, our guide to the new UK SORA guidelines covers how operational authorisations work.
Coptrz also supports fleet upgrades from the Matrice 4 series, UK servicing and repairs, and setting up missions in DJI FlightHub 2.
Getting The DJI Matrice 5T In The UK
If your team is upgrading from the Matrice 4 series or adding thermal capability for the first time, our enterprise specialists can help you choose the right setup and get your pilots flying.
Enquire about the DJI Matrice 5T or call our team on 0330 111 7177.
Download Our FREE RPC-L1 Guide
Understand everything you need to know about moving towards commercial drone operations with our RPC-L1 guide.
- Understand what RPC-L1 is and who it is for
- Learn how the CAA transition impacts operators and training routes
- Get a clear breakdown of requirements, costs and next steps
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