Helicopter UAV Selected for Anti-Submarine Project

As part of the SEACURE consortium led by Thales, Schiebel has been awarded a grant agreement under the European Defence Fund’s call for unmanned anti-submarine and seabed warfare solutions, in this case the company’s unmanned helicopter.

Schiebel’s latest product, the CAMCOPTER® S-300 — a successor to the CAMCOPTER S-100 — will serve as the dedicated Unmanned Air System (UAS) for the SEACURE project. With a maximum take-off weight of 700kg, the S-300 offers an impressive endurance in excess of 24 hours with a camera and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) or typically 6 hours with a 250 kg payload. It is the first operational VTOL in its class to achieve these capabilities. 

SEACURE, scheduled to culminate in a large-scale sea trial by 2028, stands for Seabed and anti-submarine warfare capability through unmanned feature for Europe, and is a consortium consisting of 35 companies from 13 European countries. 

The project aims to progress joint Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Seabed Warfare (SBW) with unmanned air, surface and underwater systems protecting critical maritime infrastructure. The focus is on detection, classification, identification and tracking of underwater threats in demanding conditions.

Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group, commented, “We have been working successfully with Thales on various ASW solutions for the S-100 since our first participation at the NATO exercise REPMUS in 2022. 

“Due to its longer endurance and higher payload capacity, the S-300 opens up a multitude of new possibilities for ASW and SBW. The SEACURE project aligns perfectly with our S-300 development roadmap and we’re proud to be part of such a significant project.”