Schiebel’s Camcopter S-100 Integrated on French Navy's Mistral Carrier

Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100 has been integrated with the French Navy’s Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carrier Dixmude, French Armament General Directorate (DGA) has announced.

For the first time in Europe, a rotary wing Unmanned Air System (UAS) is fully operational and connected to the defence system of an amphibious helicopter carrier, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Following a 2-year testing phase ensuring the interoperability between the vessel and the UAS, France’s Naval Group carried out the necessary modification of the ship in spring 2019.

The video output from the S-100 was integrated in the onboard combat system. With the Schiebel CAMCOPTER S-100, the helicopter carrier is increasing its Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, the company said.

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.