Five-Day Maritime Trial on OPV

At the end of August, Schiebel conducted a successful five-day trial of the CAMCOPTER S-100 unmanned aerial system (UAS) in the Gulf of Finland, aboard the Finnish Border Guard/Coast Guard’s TURVA offshore patrol vessel (OPV), the company announced on 17 September.

Day and night, the S-100 completed given scenarios including searching, locating and recognising objects as well as surveillance for maximum situational awareness. In addition to top Finnish Border Guard officials, representatives of the Finnish Defence Forces, Customs, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Finnish Meteorological Institute attended the event. The test was part of the ongoing ‘Valvonta2’ (Surveillance2) project, led by the Border Guard and funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

The CAMCOPTER S-100 was selected for the trials due to its reputation as a proven, reliable UAS for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The S-100, a compact unmanned helicopter, offers a high degree of versatility and is well known to accommodate a wide variety of payloads, tailored to meet customers’ specific requirements.

The UAS was equipped with an L3Harris Wescam MX-10 electro-optical/infrared camera, the Overwatch Imaging PT-8 OCEANWATCH wide-area maritime surveillance payload and an automatic identification system (AIS) receiver.

“As we have seen during the trials, maritime ISR and search operations can derive significant benefits from the use of UAS,” said Schiebel Group Chairman, Hans Georg Schiebel. “As a robust VTOL platform, the CAMCOPTER does not require any additional takeoff or recovery equipment, which makes it perfect for OPVs with small deck sizes. We are very pleased with the outcome of the trials and hope to be back in Finland soon.”