After a period of performance tests carried out in the latter part of 2016, the Indonesian ministry of defence became the first ever Skeldar V-200 UAV customer, UMS Skeldar announced.
The delivery of the V-200 vertical take-off and landing UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) marks the start of a working partnership and the commencement of a training programme contract between UMS Skeldar and the Indonesian MoD.
Indonesia deployed the Skeldar V-200 as part of performance and acceptance tests during Q4 2016, paving the way for the procurement and pilot training in Indonesia. With the world’s second longest coastlines, the tests and patrol evaluations were carried out across land and navy applications, the company said.
“We’re proud to announce our contract with the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Indonesia, which cements our business model of forming strategic relationships within priority regions across the world,” Jakob Baumann , CEO and delegate of the board at UMS Skeldar, said.
“The SKELDAR V-200 is the leading RPAS multi-payload and high-endurance platform within the mid-range UAV market, incorporating Saab’s experience of 80 years in the aviation industry. This will be demonstrated at Aero India 2017 as part of the first ever live flight demonstration of the SKELDAR V-200 at an air show.”
The training programme provided in Indonesia was delivered by UMS Skeldar training director Ewen Stockbridge-Sime , who specialises in global civilian and military ISR/ C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) strategies.
“The contract in Indonesia confirms the importance of IRS and SAR (Search and Rescue) strategies within complex territories and how UAVs can be used as a stand-alone or integrated platform deployed from land bases or seaborne,” said Stockbridge-Sime. “With our associated package offering, UMS SKELDAR is helping its partners to gather the necessary intelligence they require more quickly and efficiently than ever before.”