UMS Skeldar Drone Trials in Finland

UMS Skeldar, October 21, 2021 - SKELDAR V-200 successfully demonstrates its naval capabilities performing day and night search and rescue missions from Finnish ship Turva using fully automatic take-off and landing (ATOL) as part of the ongoing Finnish Border Guard Valvonta2 project.

UMS Skeldar’s V-200 has successfully completed five-day long surveillance flight trial demonstrations aboard the OPV Turva as part of the Valvonta2 project led by the Finnish Border Guard and funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

The project aims to achieve an understanding of how authorities could use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for diverse and demanding operations at sea both now and in future scenarios.

Stefan Hyltberg, Programme Manager for UMS SKELDAR said “These flight trials demonstrate that the Skeldar V-200 platform is the perfect fully-developed ATOL choice for maritime missions.”, explains Stefan Hyltberg, Programme Manager for UMS Skeldar. “Its adeptness at operating from a range of naval ships using the market-leading heavy-fuel engine from Hirth Engines in combination with its multiple sensor carrying capability give the Skeldar V-200 a real advantage over its competitors. Our team is proud to have its work recognised by the Finnish Border Guard.”

The platform of choice for maritime-based missions world-wide, the V-200 has been previously selected by the German, Royal Canadian, Belgian and Royal Netherlands Navies, providing embedded ‘eye in the sky’ intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to enhance its capacity to perform primary and secondary missions.

Hyltberg concludes: “As we have proven with these trials, the Skeldar V-200 continues to provide best-in-class capabilities for customers. Continuous development of our Skeldar V-200 and V-150 aims to not only validate the platforms’ capabilities, but also analyse customer requirements with a view to increase the service suite UMS Skeldar provides.”

Finnish Border Guard ship Turva