Schiebel Pacific and Raytheon Australia have confirmed they have lodged a bid offering the Schiebel S-100 Camcopter vertical takeoff and landing system for the Australian Army’s Project LAND 129 Phase 3 (page 18) tactical UAS requirement.

Although first revealed by ADBR in March 2020 when four companies were shortlisted for the project to replace the Army’s Textron Shadow 200 UAS, separate July 27 statements by Raytheon and Schiebel are the first public acknowledgements of the teaming. The other bidders are Leidos Australia, Textron Australia, and Insitu Pacific, and tenders for the project were due to be delivered to the Commonwealth by July 27.

The Raytheon statement says the teaming will offer “a fully integrated solution featuring an operationally superior rotary wing UAS that is optimised for future growth”, adding that it is a “low-risk offering that is intended to establish an enduring sovereign UAS capability”.

“Our solution is backed by Raytheon Australia’s 20 years of investment in sovereign complex systems integration and allows us to offer a world-class system to meet Army’s future tactical UAS requirements,” Raytheon Australia managing director Michael Ward said. “Our team will deliver a highly capable, flexible and scalable solution that offers the lowest risk and the greatest opportunity for a sovereign UAS capability for Australia.”

In a separate statement from Schiebel, Managing Director of Schiebel Pacific Fabian Knechtl said, “We are very confident that the capability of the S-100, together with the proposed integration into existing ADF systems, is the best solution for the Australian Army.

“Additionally, Raytheon Australia’s pedigree and experience in sovereign complex systems integration makes them the perfect partner and our teaming will assure efficient and timely delivery to the ADF,” he added. “We are fully committed to the Australian Government’s policy on Australian Industry Capability (AIC) and have already started the ‘transfer of knowledge’ to our local entity and our partners. Over the next several years, Schiebel Pacific will become known as a highly capable Australian UAS provider.”

The S-100 is operated by the Royal Australian Navy’s 822X SQN under Navy Minor Program (NMP)1942 to inform that service’s requirement for the larger Project SEA 129 Phase 5 Block 1, and has also conducted trial flights with the Australian Army to demonstrate its ability to carry various payloads.