The Royal Navy will have new uncrewed aerial technology to find
and track surface contacts of interest to enable freedom of
navigation and good order at sea.
Powerful surveillance sensors from Thales will be fitted to an
S-100 uncrewed air system provided by Schiebel, as part of a
c£20m contract. The uncrewed aircraft will feed real-time images
and radar data back to Royal Navy warships on the front line from
2024.
This new flexible and tactical uncrewed air system, procured by
Defence Equipment and Support, will be known as “Peregrine” – a
name with strong historic links to the Fleet Air Arm.
Alongside the Navy’s Wildcat patrol helicopters, Peregrine will
enable round-the-clock surveillance of targets over Gulf waters
and will be available for a spectrum of operational tasks to
support allies and partners in the region.
Peregrine can be launched in challenging conditions, day and
night, and will be deployed to protect warships, greatly
extending detection range and fidelity, for enhanced
intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance gathering.
Andy Start, DE&S CEO, said:
The DE&S RPAS team have delivered a contract which will see a
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 which is able to
detect threats at range, protecting British interests in the
Gulf.
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 onto, 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.
Today is also a key milestone in the Fleet Air Arm’s evolution to
a mixed crewed and uncrewed fighting arm of the Fleet, and we are
anticipating learning many lessons as such technologies continue
to develop and offer new opportunities for the current and future
Navy.
The air system – which takes off from the ship’s flight deck like
a helicopter would – will be the first uncrewed rotary wing
aircraft to operate alongside a Wildcat helicopter, allowing for
round-the-clock aerial surveillance in a timely boost to the
Royal Navy’s operational capability.
The high-definition imagery and radar data from Peregrine will be
fed directly into the ship’s Combat Management System, allowing
the command team to have good situational awareness and make
rapid operational decisions.
Peregrine will be deployed directly into an operational theatre
from mid-2024, initially for two years, with the option to
extend. This foundation based on operational lessons 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 S-100 has rapid launch ability and superior mission endurance
of several hours. It will be fitted with the Thales I-Master
radar, which will find, track and identify targets using its
proven and modern, technology.
The name Peregrine is inspired by the former HMS Peregrine, the
Royal Naval Air Station in Ford, West Sussex, that 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.
