The Royal Australian Navy has awarded Austrian UAV developer Schiebel a contract for the supply of its Camcopter S-100 system and three years of follow-on contractor logistics support.
The contract was signed at the end of December 2016, but the company announced it on February 6, 2017.
The Royal Australian Navy released an international request for tender (RfT) in late February 2016 for a UAS capability and the Camcopter S-100 vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAS was selected.
The heavy-fuel UAS navigates via preprogrammed GPS waypoints or is operated with a pilot control unit. Its carbon fiber and titanium fuselage carries a 75 lbs/34 kg payload up to 10 hours in its standard configuration.
“We feel most honored by the Royal Australian Navy’s decision to purchase our CAMCOPTER® S-100 UAS,” Hans Georg Schiebel, owner of Schiebel Group said . “We are sure that the S-100 will prove to be an effective asset that will set a new benchmark for UAS capability.”