The Royal Thai Navy's New MARCUS-C VTOL Maritime Patrol UAV is being Tested on HTMS Chakri Naruebet

28 September 2024

MARCU-C VTOL Maritime Patrol UAV is being tested on HTMS Chakri Naruebet aircraft carrier (photos: Combat Zones, Panupong Khoomcin)

The airframe of the new MARCUS-B (2024) maritime reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle, now known as MARCUS-C, was first unveiled at the 'Navy Research 2024' event at the Chao Phraya Room, Royal Thai Navy Auditorium on July 31, 2024.

The Naval Research and Development Office (NRDO), Royal Thai Navy (RTN), in collaboration with Thai private companies Oceanus Research and Development (Thailand), X-Treme Composites (Thailand), and BJSupply 2017 (Thailand), is the developer of this new MARCUS-C maritime patrol unmanned aerial vehicle.

MARCUS-C is considered a Vertical Take-Off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTOL UAV) in the MARCUS (Maritime Aerial Reconnaissance Craft Unmanned System) family of maritime reconnaissance UAVs, the third generation following the first MARCUS model that was tested on the floating landing craft, HTMS Angthong (III) 

And the second model, the MARCUS-B maritime reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle, which has been tested on the helicopter carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet in 2021 the project has been approved for a budget in fiscal year 2024 to build 1 system consisting of 4 UAVs and 1 ground control station.

The latest MARCUS-C maritime patrol UAV operationally tested aboard HTMS Chakri Naruebet in a parachute formation with several Royal Thai Navy ships in the Gulf of Thailand on 19 September 2024, marking the first time that a MARCUS-C UAV has been operated from the flight deck of a ship while the ship is at sea, unlike previous tests conducted while the ship is at port.

While the MARCUS-B has a blended wings fuselage with a twin-tail boom, the MARCUS-C uses a conventional high wings fuselage, but still maintains a propulsion system that combines a push-button propeller with four sets of rotary wing propellers that provide vertical lift. Admiral Adung Phan-iam, the commander of the Royal Thai Navy, was informed by the project officer that this prototype system has a production budget of only 36,000,000 baht ($ 1,093,080), while the same foreign VTOL UAV system will cost no less than 300,000,000 baht ($ 9,120,255). 

(AAG)

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