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Schiebel Group will continue to sustain the Royal Australian Navy’s Camcopter S-100 fleet after securing a three-year contract extension.
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The contract includes field support services, engineering and logistics elements, and the establishment of a sovereign Australian Camcopter S-100 training capability, delivered by Schiebel Pacific.
“For Schiebel Pacific the contract extension secures existing Australian jobs and will create further positions for Australian unmanned air system (UAS) experts,” Hans Georg Schiebel, chairman of Schiebel Group, said.
“We are immensely proud that we were able to convince with our Camcopter S-100.”
Schiebel first secured the RAN contract in 2016 following a request for tender (RFT) for Navy Minor Project (NMP) 1942, which sought to procure a “proven” VTOL Maritime Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System – Interim Capability (MTUAS-IC) and associated engineering and logistics support for the Navy.
The RAN issued the RFT for an unmanned rotary-wing aircraft to perform maritime and littoral intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions last February.
The UMS Skeldar V-200 and the Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout were considered contenders for the requirement
The Camcopter S-100 is built to operate day and night, under adverse weather conditions, with a range out to 200 kilometres, both on land and at sea.
The unmanned aircraft can navigate automatically via pre-programmed GPS waypoints or can be operated directly with a pilot control unit.
The platform is operated via a simple point-and-click graphical user interface, transmitting high-definition payload imagery to the control station in real time.
By leveraging ‘fly-by-wire’ technology controlled by redundant flight computers, the UAV can complete its mission automatically.
The S-100’s carbon fibre and titanium fuselage are designed to provide capacity for a wide range of payload/endurance combinations.
[Related: Schiebel delivers CAMCOPTERS to French Navy]
