UK Peregrine UAS completes factory acceptance testing

The Peregrine UAS, which comprises a Schiebel S-100 Camcopter and a Thales I-Master radar, will be deployed onboard an RN Type 23 frigate in the Gulf from 2024. (Schiebel)

Thales and Schiebel have successfully completed factory acceptance testing (FAT) of the UK Royal Navy's (RN's) Peregrine Camcopter S-100 rotary-wing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) integrated with Thales l-Master radar.

Announcing the milestone on 30 August, the two companies said the FAT approval marked an important step towards final delivery of the Camcopter S-100 UAS Peregrine system, which is destined to provide RN Duke-class Type 23 frigates with enhanced situational awareness, principally in the Gulf region.

With the FAT approval in place, the Peregrine programme is set to commence its first deliveries “ahead of schedule”, Thales said.

Schiebel, together with Thales as prime contractor and lead systems integrator, will deliver the Peregrine system to the RN under a GBP20 million (USD24.1 million) contract awarded by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in February. The scope of supply includes a single Camcopter S-100 UAS fitted with a suite of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors and systems that will extend the ‘eyes and ears' of RN ships on operational taskings.

The full Peregrine sensor suite combines Thales I-Master radar with an L-3 Wescam electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) surveillance pod and Sagetech identification friend-or-foe (IFF) capability, supported by an automatic identification system supplied by Shine and integrated with CarteNav's AIMS-ISR mission system.

The FAT demonstrated the fully integrated Peregrine system, which was end-to-end tested with the mission system and radars. The end-to-end test was completed with the l-Master radar mounted on the air vehicle. Thales described the results of the demonstration as “outstanding”, stating that the FAT was able to showcase the Peregrine systems' capabilities to the specified requirements.