Thai Navy adopts long-range drone for maritime surveillance

Long-range UAV refers to a flight platform with a flight radius of more than 100 kilometers during long-distance flight. Long-range UAVs are mostly used for logistics transportation or military inspections.

The Royal Thai Navy's procurement department this month issued a 3.96 billion baht ($118.5 million) tender for four medium-altitude long-endurance drones to enhance maritime surveillance and support tactical missions, Shephard Media reported.

There are currently four contenders for the contract: two from Israel (Israel Aerospace Industries' Heron TP and Elbit Systems' Hermes 900), China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group's Wing Loong II, and General Atomics' MQ-9 Reaper.

Last December, the Thai Navy also introduced the RQ-21A blackjack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, which will carry out maritime patrol and reconnaissance missions off the country's coast.

Thailand is also preparing to procure two additional Camcopter S-100 long-range drones from Schiebel in Austria. It can operate all day in adverse weather conditions and has a range of 200 kilometers (134 miles).

FD180P long range heavy VTOL fixed-wing UAV

FD180P  long rang heavy VTOL fixed-wing UAV  is a large-scale oil-powered long-haul composite wing vertical take-off and landing drone, max dendurance 10 hours, flight raduce is more than 500KM,  independently developed by Flydragon UAV company. The overall layout of the composite wing with fixed wing and four-rotor is used to solve the fixed-wing UAV vertical in a simple and reliable way.

The FD180P  long endurance heavy VTOL fixed-wing UAV  platform is equipped with industrial-grade vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing flight control and strapdown inertial navigation system, as well as professional aerial aerial survey and inspection ground station software. It can ensure that the drone can fly autonomously and complete the autonomous takeoff without operator intervention. In the flight phase of flight state transition, autonomous cruise, and autonomous landing, it also supports automatic route planning for more than 1000 waypoints and emergency standby plan for 100 waypoints.

The drone platform has the following features and advantages:

a) Practical and efficient: it has the characteristics of fixed-wing UAV's long flight time, fast speed, long distance and large load;

b) Vertical take-off and landing: with the take-off and landing mode of the rotorless drone, greatly reducing the requirements for landing and landing and airspace;

c) low cost of use: no complicated and bulky launching and recycling equipment, no additional recycling sensors required;

d) Simple operation: integrated special flight control and navigation system, full autonomous flight, operators only need to send flight plans, no professional training and operational experience;

Performance	parameter
Body length	3.35m
Wingspan	6.5m
Maximum takeoff weight	180kg
Maximum payload	40kg
Endurance	8h~10h
Flight radius	300-500km (depending on the amount of oil loaded)
Maximum control distance	Remote control (manual control): 1km Ground station control (depending on the distance of the digital transmission): 30km standard
Maximum speed	130km/h
Cruising speed	100-120km/h
Maximum oil load	40L
Lift limit	5000m
Maximum wind resistance	12m/s(6 level winds)
Use environment	-10℃+45℃; anti-light rain
Vertical takeoff and landing	32*8000mAh-6S Li battery
Takeoff and landing mode	Vertical takeoff and landing