France Buys Four Camcopter S-100 UAVs for Mistral-Class Warships

The French Navy has procured two CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) with a total of four Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) for deployment on the Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carriers (PorteHélicoptères Amphibie – PHA) Tonnerre and Mistral.

The acquisition comes after the successful integration of the CAMCOPTER S-100 on the French Navy Mistral-class vessel Dixmude, which was finalised in 2019. This was the first time in Europe, that a rotary wing UAS had been connected to the combat system of an amphibious helicopter carrier, Schiebel said in a release.

The acceptance tests of the two systems took place in the last week of October with representatives of Naval Group and the French Navy in attendance.

Over the next few months the newly acquired CAMCOPTER S-100 UAS will be integrated on the French Navy’s vessels Tonnerre and Mistral, significantly enhancing the helicopter carrier’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

CAMCOPTER S-100 VTOL UAS

The S-100 is capable of carrying 34kg of payload for more than 6 hours. It can take a maximum payload of 50kg. It navigates automatically via pre-programmed GPS waypoints or can be operated directly with a pilot control unit.