Thai Navy to get Schiebel's Camcopter S-100 UAS

Schiebel has won a contract to supply Camcopter S-100 Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to the Royal Thai Navy (RTN).

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 at the Royal Thai Navy, and authorised by Commander In Chief of Royal Thai Navy Headquarters in Bangkok.

Schiebel’s Camcopter 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 VTOL 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.

The UAS has 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.