Armasuisse (Swiss Federation Defense Procurement Office) will order three Indago 3 mini drones fleet from Lockheed Martin.
As part of the agreement signed with American technology giant Lockheed Martin, the Swiss Army will receive a mini drone fleet as well as maintenance parts, training, support and additional systems support. Indago drone platforms provide reconnaissance over terrains where standard winged drones can’t be used.
VCSi Touch SUAS Ground Control System used by Lockheed Martin CDL System’s database will be updated with digitized Swiss geographical altitude data and geographical categorization info as part of this agreement.
First optimized systems are planned to be delivered by the end of 2020 while the remaining systems are planned to be completed a month after first batch is delivered. Indago 3 will be operating in intelligence, search & rescue, emergency help and damage assessment missions on a tactical level.
Lockheed Martin UAS (Drone) Portfolio President Steve Fortson said the following in regards to this agreement, “Indago 3 is the perfect drone to satisfy the Swiss Army’s needs. Indagos are able to keep a low altitude with minimal noise output and provide high accuracy sensory/visual data. Indagos are very easy to operate and a brief course will teach members of the army how to properly use Indago drones. Not to mention the controllers are of Silvus Technologies radios due to their miniature size and high performance in their category compared to the other handhelds. Its size, weight, power and cost are suitable especially for situations and systems that require portable solutions.”
Indago 3
Depending on its load and environment, Indago 3 can fly for 10 km for 50 minutes on 25 knots (46.3 km/h) on normal use and can go up to 40 knots (74 km/h) of speed in temperatures between -34° and 49°. With its cyber security features, it has 3 axis stabilized sensors providing high accuracy color and infrared images and can be easily carried in a 5 libres (2.26 kg) of backpack and can be deployed in less than 3 minutes.
