Proven UAV Serves Thor and Freyja

Schiebel Corporation—the Austrian manufacturer of helicopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and mine detectors—is helping keep Iceland’s territorial waters safe from pirates, smugglers, poachers, and every other iteration of maritime baddie. 

The Vienna-based company’s Camcopter S-100 is supporting the Icelandic Coast Guard operations through a contract with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). 

Currently deployed from the patrol vessels ICGV Thor and ICGV Freyja the remotely-piloted Camcopter facilitates both day and night identification of vessels and activities of interest at much greater ranges than otherwise possible. 

By enhancing the service’s situational awareness, the Camcopter S-100 enables Icelandic Coast Guard crews to more efficiently and expediently inspect fisheries, promote safety upon the sea-lanes, conduct open-water search and rescue missions, provide vessel and port security, and enforce environmental protection measures vital to Iceland’s largely maritime economy. 

Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group, said of the partnership: “This operation is delivered as part of our ongoing service contracts with EMSA. It is great to witness that ever more European maritime authorities are making use of the exceptional capabilities of the S-100. Especially in the maritime domain, the CAMCOPTER S-100 is demonstrating its solid level of performance and experience.”

Developed from 2003 to 2005, Schiebel’s S-100 Camcopter—presumably a portmanteau of CAMera and heliCOPTER—is an unmanned aerial vehicle/rotorcraft featuring a standard, single, main-rotor and a tail-boom mounted, anti-torque rotor. The vehicle’s airframe makes extensive use of carbon-fiber, titanium, stainless-steel, and 3D-printing technology. 

The S-100 is powered by a single-rotor, four-stroke, air and liquid-cooled, 294 cc (17.9 cu in) gasoline, Wankel (rotary) engine that motivates the beastie to an advertised top-speed of 130-knots, a service-ceiling of 18,000-feet, a maximum payload of fifty-kilograms, and an in-flight duration of more than six-hours—albeit not contemporaneously. 

On 12 March 2012 Schiebel successfully tested a heavy-fuel engine, which the company states is interchangeable with the standard powerplant. The new engine allows for the use of JP-5, Jet-A, or JP-8 jet fuels. 

Designed for airborne security, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, the S-100 is capable of carrying a wide array of high-definition, electro-optical, imaging equipment that transmits in real-time to a ground—or ship—based control station. 

FMI: www.schiebel.net