The UK defense ministry has awarded Schiebel and Thales a contract to deliver the S-100 Camcopter UAS for the Royal Navy’s Peregrine Uncrewed Air Systems (UAS) program.
The Schiebel-built Camcopter will be fitted with a naval surveillance sensor suite to provide a maritime capability protecting Royal Navy Type 23 frigates on operational tasks.
Schiebel will be supplying the UAS from its Austrian site, while Thales will serve as system integrator, providing the S-100 with a range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors and systems.
The Thales I-Master radar, an EO/IR camera, and an automatic identification system (AIS), all fused with the CarteNav’s AIMS mission system enables an all-weather detection and identification capability of unknown targets.
The S-100’s rapid launch ability, superior mission endurance and high quality sensors combine to find, track and identify targets providing additional protection for the ship and its crew.
High-definition imagery and radar data downloaded to the system operator and transmitted in real-time into the ship’s combat management system (CMS) will provide the crew with invaluable time to prepare and enact operational decisions.
“We are immensely proud that the Camcopter S-100 is the UK defense ministry’s choice for its prestigious Peregrine program,” Hans Georg Schiebel, chairman of the Schiebel Group, said.
Schiebel and Thales recently also supported the Royal Navy with an uncrewed anti-submarine warfare capability in the exercises REPMUS (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping using Maritime Uncrewed Systems) in Portugal. Together, the companies demonstrated the Camcopter and its anti-submarine warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and cargo delivery capabilities. The demonstrated scenario was the surveillance of the approaches to a strategic port. The S-100, equipped with a Wescam MX-8 EO/IR sensor in the nose and a Thales data relay payload, was deployed to monitor the transmission of data from the sonobuoys and relayed it to the command center ashore, permitting the detection and classification of possible enemy submarines.
