Schiebel announced its intention to establish a dedicated Schiebel UK legal entity, reflecting strong growth opportunities in the United Kingdom defence market and the company’s long-term commitment to supporting the UK Armed Forces and industrial partners.
The decision follows the successful collaboration with Thales UK to deliver the Peregrine Rotary Wing Uncrewed Aerial System (RWUAS), based on Schiebel’s CAMCOPTER S-100. Peregrine is currently fielded operationally with the Royal Navy, where it has demonstrated proven performance in demanding operational environments, delivering persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability. Based on this operational success, the programme is expected to continue to grow as operational requirements evolve.
Looking ahead, Schiebel sees significant opportunity through future UK land and joint-domain programmes, including the UK Land Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP) programme. Within this context, Schiebel’s partnership with Thales UK offers a highly complementary value proposition. Thales’ role as a leading system integrator and advanced sensor provider, combined with its leadership in the development and integration of future autonomy applications, aligns closely with Schiebel’s proven rotary wing Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) and extensive operational experience across the globe. Together, the partnership is well positioned to deliver scalable, mission-ready solutions for the UK land battlespace.
As part of its UK growth strategy, Schiebel also intends to bring to market its much larger CAMCOPTER S-300 rotary wing Unmanned Air System (UAS). Building on the proven CAMCOPTER S-100, the S-300 offers increased endurance, payload capacity and multi-mission flexibility to support extended-range ISR as well as future autonomous and collaborative operations across land and maritime domains.
The establishment of Schiebel UK will provide a strong foundation for in-country manufacturing, assembly and rapid capability enhancement. This approach will enable closer support to UK programmes, faster integration of innovative upgrades and alignment with UK industrial participation and sovereign capability objectives.
“The United Kingdom is a strategically important market for Schiebel. The operational success of Peregrine with the Royal Navy demonstrates the maturity and reliability of our technology. By establishing Schiebel UK, we are reinforcing our long-term commitment to supporting UK defence requirements with proven, adaptable and future-ready uncrewed capability,” said Hans Georg Schiebel, Chairman of the Schiebel Group.
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Clearly everyone else has got it wrong and the RAN/DoD were right in deciding that the S100 would never prove a success.
To the best of my knowledge, Raytheon / Schiebel never received a single word from the RAN explaining why the contract was cancelled.
I think it’s obvious that they had no valid reason for the cancellation apart from it not having a “Made in the USA” sticker on it.
Enough other Defence Forces/Border Protection Forces adopting it should at lease give someone cause to start asking questions.