Malaysian Armed Forces Looking for Newer Types of VTOL UAV

17 Juni 2021

A pair of Schiebel S-100 Camcopter had bought by Malaysia (photo : Three Tis)

The Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) Defence Intelligence Staff Division (Bahagian Staf Perisikan Pertahanan -BSPP) has been operating Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) and small UAS(sUAS) since 2015 through the procurement of a pair of Schiebel S-100 Camcopter as well as dozens of DJI made sUAS.

The experience gained from operating these rotary wing drones are invaluable especially when these drones were used by BSPP to conduct border protection operations; Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR); Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear (CBRN) operations; as well as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) activities.

It seems that based on two tenders issued by MINDEF recently, BSPP is now looking for two types VTOL to complement the agency’s existing VTOL drones.

Martin UAV V-BAT 128 (photo : MartinUAV)

First type

The first type of VTOL UAS that BSPP is looking is of fixed wing aircraft configuration. According to the tender specifications, at least one set of two aircraft each will be procured. These unmanned aircraft should be equipped with surveillance and mapping payload as well as having able to perform maritime operations.

The provision of the VTOL UAS should also include datalink system, command vehicle, portable ground control station (GCS), remote video terminal system as well as simulator system for training purposes.

Looking at these specifications, it could be assumed that BSPP is looking for either a tailsitter or tiltrotor VTOL UAS such as Martin UAV V-BAT 128, the IAI Panther, the CASC CH-10 and Wingtra drones.

The V-BAT has been selected by the US Navy as a study for shipborne VTOL UAV able to be operated in confined space but with an endurance of fixed wing UAV. It has been tested over the Caribbean where it was used to conduct counter narcotic ISR operations.

Another tailsitter type VTOL fived wing UAV is the Wingtra which is used for surveying roles, or for light payload delivery to rural areas. WingtraOne collects high resolution aerial data which is used to generate orthophotos, 3D reconstructions, point cloud and NDVI maps

The CH-10 tiltrotor UAV was developed for operations out of large and medium-sized naval ships as well as with Army unit by providing Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities.

Deftech Camar Aludra VTOL UAV (photo : IIUM)

Second type VTOL UAV

The second type of VTOL UAS that has been tendered is a hybrid UAV which has multi rotors for vertical take off and landing as well as pusher propeller for the actual flying. At least two of aircraft will be procured. These aircraft should have Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) of no less than 15 kilogram and have flight endurance of 1 hour (full payload) and 5 hours (empty load). They should also be able to fly 45 kilometers from the GCS.

The requirement also stated that the Electro Optic (EO) camera payload should be able to detect vehicle license number plate at 500 meters, personnel at 1000 meters and medium sized vehicle at 2000 meters. The Infra Red (IR) camera payload on the other hand is required to have auto tracking features as well as able to detect personnel at 1000 meters and medium sized vehicles at 2000 meters.

The tender also specified the provision of datalink system, 4 wheeled drive command vehicles and portable GCS.

Among notable hybrid multi rotor VTOL UAS in the market were Boeing/In-Situ ScanEagle (with FLARES VTOL kit), ST Engineering Veloce, SCS Nyamok VTOL UAV, JOUAV CW-series and DEFTECH Camar Aludra VTOL UAV to list a few.

(MFH)