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18 A combination of technologies from UMS Aero in Switzerland and Saab in Sweden has led to the emergence of a major new player in remotely piloted unmanned systems – and the new company, UMS Skeldar, has big ambitions, says David Willems, head of business development and sales. The UMS Aero Group was formed in 2013 when Unmanned Systems AG (UMS) bought neighbouring rotary- wing platform developer Swiss UAV to combine their fixed-wing and rotary designs. It changed its name to UMS Aero in 2014 before joining up with Saab, adding Saab’s Skeldar long-endurance rotary platform to its product range. The joint venture brings together fixed-wing and rotary vertical take-off (VTOL) unmanned systems with 4-12 hours of endurance and up to 45 kg of payload. The venture is driven by two trends in unmanned systems – industrial customers wanting both fixed-wing and rotary systems for different types of monitoring, and a consolidation among smaller companies as the industry matures. This is also driving the integration of data systems to combine video and still images from the two types of platform and provide the data to customers in a useable way. UMS Aero produces its own avionics systems such as autopilot and engine management hardware and software, working with local Swiss technology suppliers and manufacturers, and it was that expertise that has led to the relationship with Saab. That opens a lot of doors, Willems says. Historically Saab Skeldar was a military platform, while UMS was targeting heavy industry and government users, so the joint venture provides a range of options including the fixed-wing F-330 and rotary R-350 from UMS at entry level to the high-end rotary V-200 Skeldar long- endurance platform from Saab. All the Skeldar expertise and IP comes to the joint venture, with the V-200 being modified to have common payload and avionics systems with the other platforms. UMS Skeldar’s head of business development tells Nick Flaherty about his plans for this joint venture Taking flight? February/March 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology One area of focus for UMS Skeldar is on developing the next generation of its fixed-wing system, the F-330