According to a press release published by Schiebel on June 21, 2021, the Finnish Border Guard is once again operating the CAMCOPTER® S-100 for implementing coast guard functions in the Baltic Sea. The Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) service is offered by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
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CAMCOPTER S-100 unmanned air system (Picture source: Schiebel)
Based at a coast guard station in Hanko, Finland, the CAMCOPTER® S-100 is supporting the Finnish authorities in carrying out Coast Guard functions, such as maritime border surveillance, search and rescue, monitoring and surveillance, ship and port security, vessel traffic monitoring, environmental protection and response, ship casualty assistance, as well as accident and disaster response. The information collected in the Baltic Sea from the on-board RPAS system is shared in parallel with multiple Member States, allowing for a common maritime picture and more comprehensive coordination. The operations will continue until end of July.
The S-100 will execute these tasks equipped with an L3 Wescam Electro-Optical / Infra-Red (EO/IR) camera gimbal, an Overwatch Imaging PT-8 Oceanwatch, a Becker Avionics BD406 Emergency Beacon Locator and an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver.
This deployment comes on top of two other CAMCOPTER® S-100 operations for EMSA currently being carried out in Estonia and Romania conducting maritime surveillance. It is also the third deployment for the Finnish Border Guard, after a trial in 2019.
Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER® S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) is an operationally proven capability for military and civilian applications. The Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) UAS requires no prepared area or supporting equipment to enable launch and recovery.
It operates by day and by night, under adverse weather conditions, with a beyond line-of-sight capability out to 200 km / 108 nm, over land and sea.
Its carbon fiber and titanium fuselage provide capacity for a wide range of payload/endurance combinations up to a service ceiling of 5,500 m / 18,000 ft. In a typical configuration, the CAMCOPTER® S-100 carries a 34-kg / 75-lbs payload up to 10 hours and is powered with AVGas or JP-5 heavy fuel.
High-definition payload imagery is transmitted to the control station in real-time. In addition to its standard GPS waypoint or manual navigation, the S-100 can successfully operate in environments where GPS is not available, with missions planned and controlled via a simple point-and-click graphical user interface.
