Maritime aerial surveillance to be conducted with Airbus RPAS
NewsOctober 23, 2020
EUROPE. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) awarded a contract to Airbus Defense and Space Airborne Solutions (ADAS), a 100% subsidiary of Airbus Defense and Space and company specializing in remotely piloted aircraft systemts (RPAS) services, and its partner Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to operate a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) RPAS for Maritime Aerial Surveillance services.
The service will be delivered in Greece, and/or Italy and/or Malta within a Framework Contract. The service includes the provision of a RPAS platform, payload, communication equipment and capacity, mission storage and all necessary experts managing the system and providing operational support. Under the contract, Airbus and IAI will provide the service for pre-planned assignments as well as for ad-hoc calls.
The contracting officials claim that the RPAS will be fitted with dedicated payloads (electro-optical for day and infrared for night purposes, maritime patrol radar made by IAI and automatic identification system), relevant communication equipment, and corresponding ground mission control and support.
According to the IAI, Heron uses a direct link when flying within Line of Sight (LOS), changing to a satellite link when flying Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) to transmit real time information or when needed to fly in low altitude over sea. This information is being transmitted to Frontex command and control centre as well as to centres of the respective Coast Guards.
