The Tanan 300 vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aircraft system (VTOL Tactical UAS) from Cassidian was shown at recently at Eurosatory in Paris. The Tanan rotary UAS has been in development for around four years, which includes work conducted on the original programme. Perhaps unusually, despite Cassidian being an EADS company, there was no involvement by Eurocopter in the design process.
It uses a diesel engine with a mission endurance of between eight and 10 hours. It is designed to take a 50kg of payload out to around 180km. It will operate in temperatures between -20 degrees C and +50 degrees C.
Said Cassidian’s Alain Dupiech: “Although still in the testing phase, we are aiming for certification in 2013. We see this UAS in both the land and maritime environments and have been conducting trials with the French Navy for mission at sea.”
Depiech added that the UAS was potentially scalable in size and that it had stealth characteristics due to its design and use of special paint coating. Missions would include ISTAR, anti-piracy, maritime reconnaissance and special forces use. The Tanan’s most obvious competitor would be Schiebel’s Camcopter S-100.
Source: Rotor & Wing