Swedish Police contracts Saab for UAV systems

The Swedish Police has awarded a contract to defence and security firm Saab to deliver three unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems.

The contract will run until 2018 with deliveries starting this year.

Saab Support and Services head Jonas Hjelm said: "This move to provide unmanned systems to support government services gives us a good foundation to evolve this technology further. The contract also strengthens our support and maintenance services for civil security applications.

The UAV systems will feature air vehicles equipped with day/night sensors and a ground station, plus spare parts, consumables, and digital cameras.

The system is equipped with the Qube quadcopter air vehicle, supplied by the US-based AeroVironment.

In November, Saab secured a contract to provide support and maintenance services with Field Aviation for the aircraft of the Swedish Coast Guard for a period of five years.

Valued at SEK160m ($18.3m), the contract will see Saab provide technical monitoring, the supply of spares and maintenance services for aircraft, engines, radar and other special equipment for the Swedish Coast Guard.

The company has been supporting the Swedish Coast Guard since 2006 by providing full integrated logistic support, maintenance and engineering services for the aircraft platform, engines and mission systems at the Coast Guard’s main base in Nykoping, Sweden.

Saab has been responsible for systems and support for the Swedish Army’s UAV Ugglan, UAV Örnen and SUAV Falken.