UAVs

Saab has conducted the first customer demonstration with its recently expanded family of vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicles.

The Swedish manufacturer says it conducted a series of flights in Switzerland during late August in collaboration with local company Swiss UAV. The effort involved their Koax, Neo and Skeldar air vehicles, and employed a common ground control station developed by Saab for its 200kg (441lb) Skeldar unmanned helicopter.

© Saab
Skeldar is the largest system in the TUAV family

Saab declines to name the potential buyer, but Stefan Nygren, its business director for UAV systems, describes the autonomous demonstration as having been "a big success".

"We showed how the system can be used to identify improvised explosive devices, and to hover above an item for a long period of time," Nygren says.

Privately owned Swiss UAV signed a marketing agreement with Saab last May, under which the companies are also co-operating in the further development of their VTUAV systems. Saab displayed models of the coaxial Koax X-240 and civil mission-optimised Neo S-300 at the DSEi exhibition in London earlier this month.

Both images © Saab
Swiss UAV developed the Koax (top) and Neo (bottom) air vehicles

The Swiss designs have maximum take-off weights of approximately 75kg and 45kg, respectively.