As part of the new operational capabilities (NCO) market for PCBs (projection and command building), a second Camcopter S-100 aerial drone equipped with an AIS receiver * was delivered and received by the DGA at the end of November 2018, on the Naval Air Station Hyères (Var).
Immediately transferred to the BPC Diksmuide, the drone successfully completed its first flight check at the end of November off Toulon.
This delivery is part of the preparation of a first operational capacity “drones”, initiated by the temporary installation of the drone system on the PCB Dixmude mid-2017. The DGA has actively supported all of this work by the contribution of the BPC architects (platform and combat system), specialists in the naval integration of drones, onboard aviation and electromagnetic compatibility on board.
The Navy now has a complete UAV system consisting of two aerial drones, sharing the same MX-10 optronic payload. The Navy is now able to exploit this capability in conditions representative of operational use, before a complete physical and functional integration at the next technical stop scheduled for spring 2019:
- installation of the link antennas and the navigation system (with a directional antenna placed in a mature position)
- installation of a maintenance space in the aviation hangar
- installation of drone operators at central operations
- installation of a drone mission console, connected to the SENIT 9 combat system: this console allows operators to access the tactical situation on board, and to exploit the optronic and AIS data received by the drone
- integration into the video on board network, with dissemination of images in the headquarters zone, in particular for tracking amphibious missions.
The next flights of the drone will take place in spring 2019 at the reception of the installation finalized aboard the BPC Diksmuide.
* AIS: Automatic Identification System