Schiebel has more than 20 years experience with the development and production of UAVs. The company has production facilities and offices in Abu Dhabi, Austria, Australia and the US. The Middle East is an important region for Schiebel, given its first major contract back in 2005 for the CAMCOPTER® S-100 came from the United Arab Emirates. The CAMCOPTER® S-100 is flown all over the world with clients such as the Royal Thai Navy, Royal Australian Navy, the European Maritime Safety Agency, and many more.
For the European Maritime Safety Agency, Schiebel, with its CAMCOPTER® S-100, supports Coast Guards all over Europe – most recently in France, Denmark, Croatia and Finland – to carry out border security and maritime surveillance. With its vast experience at land and at sea, it has proven its outstanding capabilities at many occasions.
Most recently, the French Navy acquired four additional S-100 UAVs, which will be integrated on their Mistral-class amphibious helicopter carriers Tonnere and Mistral. The initial two S-100s were already fully integrated on their helicopter carrier Dixmude. This was the first time in Europe, a rotary wing UAS was fully operational and connected to the defence system of an amphibious helicopter carrier.
In August 2020, Schiebel together with Nordic Unmanned carried out the world’s first full-scale offshore UAV cargo delivery from shore to an active oil and gas installation for Equinor. The demonstration simulated the scenario of an urgent requirement for spare parts at the gas production Troll A in Norway. The CAMCOPTER® S-100 successfully carried out the long-range delivery and the demonstration also included an aerial platform inspection as well as a simulated search and rescue mission.
Meanwhile in Australia, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has been operating the CAMCOPTER® S-100 since 2018. Currently, the RAN UAVs are fitted with Schiebel’s proprietary heavy fuel engine, the S2. Given the single fuel policy adopted by the world’s navies, the heavy fuel engine is Schiebel’s alternative option to its current propulsion unit.
Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER® S-100 Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Air System (UAS) is currently in use on five continents with 34 customers. More than 350 Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) have flown a total of 100,000 hours so far. The S-100’s small footprint makes it the ideal solution for small ships and it has operated from more than 30 different ships with 10,000 maritime flight hours and 2,000 deck landings to date.