Swedish UAS developer and manufacturer CybAero has received a comprehensive mission order to be carried out under arctic maritime conditions. Under the flag of a Norwegian research program CybAero will perform several demo flights aimed to detect and classify oil spills on water. Total budget of the program is set to 22 million Norweigan crowns (approximately 2.8 MUSD)

There’s a clear trend towards higher transportation needs in the Arctic region. In this context, accurate forecasts on weather, icing conditions and possible environmental emissions are crucial. Harsh weather conditions with limited sight in geographically distant areas make a platform or ship based VTOL UAS (Vertical Take-Off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Systes) a very competitive alternative to satellite systems and conventional reconnaissance flights for data gathering.

The Research Council of Norway has decided to allocate funding to the research project ”Arctic UAV -  Bruk av UAS til overvåking og datainnsamling i nordområdena” which is part of a programme called ”Maritim virksomhet og offshore operasjoner” (MAROFF). CybAero is included in the consortium that applied for and was awarded funding. The project is headed by the Norwegian company Simicon AS and constitutes the Norwegian part of the EUREKA project called "Maridrone - E!3967, maritime drones for cold areas".

CybAero CEO Mikael Hult is very pleased with the contract; - This confirms our choice of business strategy. We believe that environmentally oriented flight missions will represent a considerable share of the civilian UAS market. We’re already present on the defence market and this arctic mission is an interesting opportunity for us.

Finding oil spills
CybAero will be responsible for adaptation of infrastructure and helicopter system for arctic conditions, also the company will do demonstrations flights aimed to detect and classify oil spills on water.

– By participating in the MAROFF programme we see a great opportunity to collect data and gain operative test experience. We can also put various system components to the test within the project, says Johan Martensson, Chief Technical Officer at CybAero. In the project we develop UAS solutions for maritime applications  to be used  under severe conditions.

CybAero’s share of  the project amounts to approximately 300 000 USD.

For more information:
call CybAero on +46 (0)13 465 29 00 E-mail: info@cybaero.net