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DE&S procures Royal Navy’s new ‘eye in the sky’
from March 2023
by Desider
Powerful surveillance sensors sourced from Thales UK will be fitted to an S-100 uncrewed air system provided by Austrian-based Schiebel. From 2024, this new uncrewed air system, known as ‘Peregrine’, will be able to feed real-time images and radar data back to Royal Navy warships on the front-line.
Procured by DE&S, Peregrine will enable round-the-clock surveillance of targets over Gulf waters and will be available to support allies and partners in the region.
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Peregrine can be launched in challenging conditions – in the day or at night. Not only will it greatly extend detection range, but it can be used for enhanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance gathering.
DE&S CEO Andy Start said: “The DE&S Remotely Piloted Systems team have delivered a contract which will see the rapid development and deployment of a key remotely piloted air system capability for the Royal Navy. Due to the collaborative approach we have taken with industry, the Navy shall be receiving a mature air system that is able to detect threats at range, protecting British interests in the Gulf.”
The S-100 has rapid launch ability and superior mission endurance of several hours. The air system – which takes off from the ship’s flight deck like a helicopter – will be the first uncrewed rotary wing aircraft to operate alongside a Wildcat helicopter, allowing for improved aerial surveillance in a timely boost to the Royal Navy’s operational capability.
It will be fitted with the Thales I-Master radar, which can track and identify targets using proven technology. The highdefinition imagery and radar data from
Peregrine will be fed directly into the ship’s Combat Management System, granting the command team good situational awareness and the ability to make rapid operational decisions.
Rear Admiral James Parkin, the Royal Navy’s Director Develop, said: “I am delighted that we are at the stage where this excellent capability is about to be introduced into the front-line. As a system both deployed on to and integrated into warships and auxiliaries operating in congested and complex areas of the world, the Peregrine aircraft offers what the Royal Navy needs in order to respond to the wide variety of threats that we are facing today.”
Peregrine will be deployed directly into an operational theatre from mid-2024, initially for two years, with the option to extend. This will give the Royal Navy valuable experience and understanding of the use of uncrewed systems in this role ahead of further decisions and investments.
The name Peregrine was inspired by the former HMS Peregrine, the Royal Naval Air Station in West Sussex, which was used after the Second World War as the Fleet Air Arm’s dedicated test and development centre in the early years of carrier-borne jet aircraft.
