by Bill Carey
The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has awarded Austria’s Schiebel Group a contract to provide its Camcopter S-100 unmanned helicopter and three years of logistics support. The company announced the contract on February 6, but it was signed back in December. It did not disclose the contract value or the number of systems ordered, each of which consists of two aircraft.
With an empty weight of 110 kg (243 pounds) and powered by heavy-fuel or gasoline engines, the S-100 carries a payload of 75 pounds for more than six hours; fitted with an optional external fuel tank it operates for more than 10 hours. Schiebel advertises a beyond line-of-sight operating range of 200 km (124 miles).
The RAN issued a request for tenders last February for an unmanned rotary-wing aircraft to perform maritime and littoral intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The UMS Skeldar V-200 and the considerably larger Northrop Grumman MQ-8C Fire Scout were considered contenders for the requirement.
Read the full story at AINonline
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