L3 Wescam MX-10 & Overwatch Imaging PT-8 OCEANWATCH integrated

Schiebel effectively demonstrated search and rescue (SAR) and maritime surveillance capabilities of its CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) from 21 June to 1 July 2018 to the Belgian Navy.

These trials were aimed at building an enhanced knowledge base and developing a successful concept of operations for the use of UAS in support of SAR as well as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. For the demonstration flights, designed to show the suitability of the CAMCOPTER S-100 for these capabilities, the helicopter was equipped with two payloads, the L3 Wescam MX-10 and the Overwatch Imaging PT-8 OCEANWATCH, as well as an automatic identification system (AIS) receiver and a rescue drop box. The flight trials included various SAR scenarios in a land-based setting in Lombardsijde, Belgium and in a maritime environment in the naval port of Zeebrugge.

“The trials with the S-100 have been very successful and have taught us a lot about the possibilities of such systems and sensors, the ability to operate in Belgian’s confined airspace, opportunities for the domain of coastal security and prospects for further developments,” said Lt. Commander D. Biermans, in charge of the Belgian Navy’s Maritime Tactical UAS (MTUAS) Project Team. “Given the complexity of introducing a MTUAS within the navy and its impact on the concepts of operation and tactics, this was a first informative step and will be part of a series of tests and experiments with a variety of vehicles and sensors.”

The flights were the first S-100 customer demonstration with the recently integrated PT-8 OCEANWATCH payload. This wide-area maritime search capability offers a powerful naval patrol capacity and thus solves the challenge of searching for small objects over vast areas. The employed combination of two payloads proved to be an ideal solution for the tested scenarios. For more on this capability, please read here. 

“With its small footprint, exceptional capability and state-of-the-art payloads, the CAMCOPTER S-100 is the perfect platform for maritime and land-based SAR missions,” Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group, concluded. “Our tried and tested helicopter continuously proves to be the most capable and successful vertical takeoff and landing UAS.”