Schiebel press release
Following an extensive competitive tender process, Schiebel was awarded its first contract with the RTN, which was signed by Schiebel’s CEO Hannes Hecher and Admiral Prachachart Sirisawat, Director General Naval Acquisition Management office of the Royal Thai Navy, and authorised by Commander In Chief of Royal Thai Navy Headquarters in Bangkok.
Schiebel’s Campcopter S-100 will be deployed in 2020 to the Pakphanang District, in the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat in Thailand and on the RTN frigate fleet to deliver land and sea based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations. This is the first time the RTN will be using Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) for maritime operations.
To ensure a smooth transition into service and to provide commercial offset, Schiebel has partnered with MoraThai Defence Company Limited of Bangkok.
“With the Royal Thai Navy, we have another major maritime contract to add to our growing list of customers. Our Camcopter S-100 is recognised for being a reliable and proven UAS, especially at sea, which is why we outpaced all other UAS suppliers in competitive tender process,” said Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group.
Schiebel’s Camcopter S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) is an operationally proven capability for military and civilian applications. The Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS requires no prepared area or supporting equipment to enable launch and recovery. It operates by day and by night, under adverse weather conditions, with a beyond line-of-sight capability out to 200 km / 108 nm, over land and sea.
Its carbon fiber and titanium fuselage provides capacity for a wide range of payload/endurance combinations up to a service ceiling of 5,500 m / 18,000 ft. In a typical configuration, the Camcopter S-100 carries a 34-kg / 75-lbs payload up to 10 hours and is powered with AVGas or JP-5 heavy fuel. High-definition payload imagery is transmitted to the control station in real time. In addition to its standard GPS waypoint or manual navigation, the S-100 can successfully operate in environments where GPS is not available, with missions planned and controlled via a simple point-and-click graphical user interface.
