Surveillance drone MAPS: Skydweller integrates Thales AI radar Air Master-S

Thales and Skydweller are expanding their cooperation: the Thales Air Master-S radar is being integrated into MAPS, Skydweller's surveillance drone and unmanned aircraft. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the radar adapts autonomously to the respective flight conditions.

The MAPS drone can carry a payload of up to 400 kilograms and stays airborne without interruption for weeks to months. The Air Master-S radar system with which Thales equips the platform calibrates itself automatically to the flight and mission conditions. This makes it suitable for operating on board the Skydweller drone for months.

Target classification relies on AI: the radar finds the relevant objects in large volumes of data, and less data has to be transmitted to the ground stations.

For Thales, Philippe Duhamel, Executive Vice President, Defense Mission Systems, emphasises: “We are pleased with this cooperation, which underlines the value of our AI expertise in radar technology. Combined with the innovative Skydweller MAPS platform, it marks a genuine technological breakthrough for future surveillance missions.”