Schiebel, in cooperation with ELTA Systems and Overwatch Imaging, integrated two new payloads for Australian Army exercise.
The Australian Army conducted a two-week activity with the CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) to gain further insights into future capabilities and payloads in support of Project Land 129-3, the company said in a statement Thursday.
Specifically, they tested ELTA Systems’ ELK-7065 Compact Airborne HF COMINT/DF 3D System during the first week, followed by Overwatch Imaging’s game-changing TK-5 Firewatch during the second week of the exercise.
The multi-payload capable Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS, S-100 operates day and night, under adverse weather conditions and with a beyond line-of-sight capability of up to 200 km.
The combination of the CAMCOPTER S-100 and the ELK-7065 offers flexible high-frequency (HF) communications intelligence (COMINT) capability that provides rapid spectrum exploration, analysis and detection of advanced HF communication signals in real time and with off-line analysis tools. It is suitable to operate in harsh electromagnetic environments, the company said.
“The ELK-7065, integrated on the CAMCOPTER S-100 UAS, offers capability of delivering time-critical intelligence in the most complex operational environments,” noted Chris Day, Chief Technical Officer for Schiebel. “This is increasingly important for military, para-military and civilian applications.”
Overwatch Imaging’s TK-5 Firewatch payload, which was tested during the second week of the exercise, bridges the gap between small drone mapping cameras and satellite mapping systems. The wide-area multi-band land mapping with automatic small object detection enables regional-scale applications in real time with optimal resolution. It includes color, near infrared (NIR) and temperature-calibrated thermal longwave infrared (LWIR) sensors that operate at the same time, including simultaneous on-board image processing. Integrated on the CAMCOPTER S-100, it becomes an extremely powerful asset for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.