Selex ES, a Finmeccanica company, was awarded, a service agreement by the United Nations for the provision of unmanned aerial system (UAS) for three years with two optional years, in support of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO) in Congo through the use of the UAS and associated enablers for information gathering and surveillance operations.

It is the first time that the UN has contracted with a civilian operator to provide unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology to aid in executing its unique humanitarian mandate. Selex ES will be utilising its proprietary Falco UAV system composed of multiple remotely-piloted aircraft ground control stations, support equipment and logistics.

The Falco is an unarmed, mission-proven medium altitude, medium endurance UAV able to operate from semi-prepared airstrips with fully automated take-off, landing and mission execution capability. Selex ES will deploy a highly experienced team of pilots, maintenance engineers and information analysts using the most sophisticated sensors and data exploitation tools available.

Selex ES has also signed a contract worth over €40 million to deliver the system to a Middle East country. It will also provide operational and maintenance support to the customer for 12 months of the contract performance.

Currently operated by a range of international customers in diverse and extreme climate and geographical conditions, the Falco system is a field-proven asset that can be easily integrated within existing air management infrastructures and is delivered to its customers with a comprehensive set of operational and logistic support services including pilots, sensors and mechanical operators training, advanced logistic support, battlelab simulators for CONOPS development.

A comprehensive suite of payloads, including AESA radar and electro-optic turrets, equip Falco to perform a 24x7 all-weather wide range of missions. It features ramp take-off, fully automatic short take-off and landing capabilities and day/night flight and navigation, plus a NATO-compliant ground control station enabling mission planning, re-tasking and data exploitation.

“We welcome this new contract for our field proven Falco UAS that confirms the operational reliability and performance of the system, from the sensors to the mission system, delivering outstanding 24x7 all-weather, day and night surveillance,” said Fabrizio Giulianini, CEO of Selex ES, adding: “This year has been an exciting year for our UAS capability, thanks to follow-on contracts for our unmanned surveillance service business, flight campaigns of our top of the range Falco EVO and the acquisition of a launch customer for our platform agnostic SkyISTAR mission system.”