HELSINKI — CybAero, the Nordic region's largest producer of military and civilian drones, has completed an advanced test program on its ship-based extreme climate APID One helicopter system for the Swedish Navy.

The program, which focused on autonomous takeoffs and landings and included reconnaissance capability tests, is expected to lead to a delivery order for CybAero and down-the-line deployment of the APID One on Visby-class corvettes and other patrol vessels in the Navy's surface fleet.

The 12-month long trials were conducted for FMV, Sweden's defense procurement agency, and in collaboration with the Swedish Navy. Testing of the APID One included its autonomous starts and landings capabilities from a fast-moving corvette in the Baltic Sea.

Onboard tests evaluated the APID One system's capacity to conduct search and identify missions on various objects in littoral waters off Sweden's southern coastline.

"The APID One system landed autonomously on the corvette at a speed of 25 knots, and in wind conditions up to 15 miles per second. This is the first time that a helicopter of this type and size has performed fully autonomous landings on a corvette," CybAero CEO Mikael Hult said.

The Swedish Navy is seeking to deploy multi-role UAVs to bolster ships' operational capabilities to carry out a broad range of missions and tasks. The Navy is looking to achieve cost efficiencies by increasing the use of drones to improve the reconnaissance capability of its surface fleet.

Share:
More In Home