CybAero Tests Ship Based APID One System From Swedish Corvette

CybAero has ended a test campaign with their ship based system APID One in the last week of April.

The clients of the campaign were FMV (the Swedish Defence Procurement Agency) in collaboration with the Swedish Navy. The campaign has been going on for over a year and ended with numerous flights during week 17, from HMS Karlstad, a Swedish stealth corvette of Visby-Class, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

During the test campaign the system's ability to perform autonomous starts and landings from a fast moving ship was one of the capabilities being tested. Furthermore the APID One System carried out missions such as to identify objects in the water.

“Our system has met the expectations and requirements that FMV and the Swedish Navy had set up for the tests. The system has landed autonomously on the corvette at a speed of 25 knots, and in wind conditions up to 15 m/s. This is the first time that a helicopter of this type and size has performed fully autonomous landings on a corvette." says Mikael Hult, CEO CybAero.

"We are convinced that CybAeros APID One system, placed on a ship of this type, could increase the ships operational capabilities significantly. Thanks to the flexibility of the system we can equip the helicopter with different sensors on different occasions to solve the tasks and challenges that the ship are facing", Hult continues.

In addition to military applications, the system can be used for civilian missions, for example finding refugees lost at sea, inspection of oil rigs and coastal mapping. CybAeros system increases the reconnaissance capability of other similar vessels in a simple and cost efficient way.

CybAero & Airbus have been working in a Partnership since 2011 with the Visby Trials now proving the maturity of the overall CybAero Landing System.

"Ship Operations in littoral waters include complex tasks, with elements such as smugglers, submarines and refugees. We have listened to the end-users requirements and created an easy-to-use system with two unique features; the automatic ship landing system and the heavy fuel propulsion," Evert Dudok, Executive Vice President Airbus Defence & Space Communication, and Intelligence and Security said.