The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) contracted Schiebel to support multi-purpose maritime operations with its Unmanned Air System (UAS) CAMCOPTER S-100 in La Manche and the southern section of the North Sea. The operation aimed to assist the maritime authorities of Belgium and France across a variety of coast guard functions including emission monitoring. Stationed at the Gris-Nez Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in the Pas-de-Calais Department of France, the S-100 supported on request both participating countries within an airspace validated by the civil aviation authority depending on the areas flown over. The UAS provided enhanced support for maritime safety, search and rescue, maritime surveillance, environmental protection and maritime accident and disaster response. The operationally mature S-100 executed these tasks equipped with multiple sensors,a Trakka TC-300 EO/IR sensor, an Explicit Mini Sniffer for emission monitoring, aBecker Avionics BD406 Emergency Beacon Locator, an Automatic IdentificationSystem (AIS) receiver and a Mode-S Transponder ADSB out.

Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100 Unmanned Air System (UAS) is an operationally proven capability formilitary 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, underadverse 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 provides 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 it carries a 34-kg / 75-lbs payload up to 10 hours and is powered with AVGas orJP-5 heavy fuel. High-definition payload imagery is transmitted to the control station in real time. Inaddition 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. The high-tech unmanned helicopter is backed by Schiebel’s customer support and training services.