The Schiebel product, which is already in service with a number of countries including Australia, was selected in May 2022 to fulfil the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN) requirements under Block 1 of Project SEA 129 Phase 5.
Through the ambitious $840 million USD project the RAN had planned to acquire three blocks of maritime Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) over coming decades, with each subsequent block delivering greater capability than its predecessor. Prior to the S-100 being selected last year, vehicles from Textron Systems, Insitu Pacific, BAE Systems and Leonardo had been shortlisted for final consideration by Defence.
Then, in May 2022, then Minister for Defence Peter Dutton, selected the CAMCOPTER S-100 for Block 1 of Project SEA 129 Phase 5 without proceeding through to a final tender evaluation.
Controversially, the decision to proceed with a sole-source procurement was made just days before Dutton’s government entered “caretaker mode,” a period before an election in which Australian governments, by convention, refrain from making “major decisions” impacting any portfolio.
16 Months On…
The decision, a Defence spokesperson said at the time, would deliver Initial Operational Capability (IOC) 18 months earlier than any other competitor due to the RAN’s experience operating six examples of type since 2016.
However, nearly 16 months on from the original decision, Naval News understands that the CAMCOPTER S-100, offered in partnership with Raytheon Australia, has been formally dropped by the Department of Defence as part of its response to the 2023 Defence Strategic Review (DSR), commissioned by the new Australian Labor government.
In response to questions from Naval News, a Defence spokesperson declined to confirm that the Schiebel/Raytheon solution had been sidelined. “SEA129 Phase 5 has not been discontinued,” they said, “Defence is examining options for the future of SEA129 Phase 5 as part of its holistic response to the [DSR].”
However, Neil Hunter, Head of Business Development at Schiebel told Naval News that the Australian government had decided not to pursue the CAMCOPTER S-100 further as part of SEA 129 Phase 5.
“Schiebel’s current contract with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), which was awarded in late 2016 was not affected in any way by the decision of the Commonwealth to not continue the SEA 129-5 Block 1 tender. Of note, this opportunity was still at the tender stage and final negotiations had not commenced,” he said, “[the RAN] currently has six CAMCOPTER S-100 aircraft in operation, [conducting] regular deployments and Schiebel is awaiting the start of negotiations for a follow-on sustainment contract.”
Looking Forward
Moving forward it’s unclear how and when the overall project will proceed, as Defence continues to examine its options in the wake of the DSR. However, given the documents focus on delivering capabilities quickly, it is possible that the RAN may seek to benefit from the Australian Army’s success.
In March 2022, just two months before the original S-100 decision was made, Army selected Insitu Pacific to provide ‘Australianised’ RQ-21 Integrators. Since then the program has progressed at a rapid pace with initial flight tests completed in May this year.
Whatever the decision, the RAN’s future UAS requirements are sure to be a point of discussion at Indo Pacific 2023.
