Spain has approved plans to acquire Thales’s newest unmanned aerial system for the country’s Navy and Army, said Infodefensa.com.

Spain’s Directorate-General for Armament and Material (DGAM) has awarded Thales two contract to provide Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capability to the Spanish Navy and Army in their decisive moments during the missions at the operations zones.

The Spanish Navy has selected Fulmar X unmanned aircraft system for the test and evaluation of UAS in experimentation maritime environments. Fulmar X’s maritime version is highly versatile, allowing the aircraft to take off and land while the ship is moving, an ability that gives it unrivaled competitive advantage over other systems available on the market. Fulmar X can be used for a wide range of operational scenarios such as surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-piracy and security tasks.

In addition, DGAM has acquired class I RPAS system to be deployed by the Spanish Army in Operational Zones. By using the new high performance, dual Electro-Optical / Infared payload the system will detect targets, identify threats and provide the necessary information to guarantee security. This digital system will be available throughout the next weeks for being deployed this year.

Fulmar X is classified in the mini-UAV segment. Its size is 3.1 meters and weighs 19 kilos, it flies to the altitude of 3,000 meters and can achieve a speed of 150 kilometres per hour. It has a range of eight hours due to a low consumption of the aircraft in flight as a result of its aerodynamic design, and it can fly 800 km without refueling.

This Spanish design counts on a terrestrial and a maritime version. Fulmar X is purely Spanish, contributing with a profitable closeness to equipment maintenance as well as to operators’ training.