Nordic Unmanned

Overview

Summary

Nordic Unmanned is an aviation service provider and aerospace component manufacturing company that delivers tailor-made RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) services in over 13 European countries, across four verticals, including maritime surveillance, security, infrastructure, and logistics. 

The company was founded in 2014, but it wasn’t until 2017 that it got the ISO 9001:2015 certification by DNVGL (now DNV), an assurance and risk management company, as a drone and sensor operator. In 2015, it entered an agreement to become the European reseller for Lockheed Martin Overseas Corporation. That same year, it had its first commercial flight at Svalbard for client Exxon Mobile.

Nordic Unmanned’s vision is “to become the preferred provider of unmanned systems and services within the Energy, Maritime and Governmental segments in the Nordic region.” In pursuit of that vision, Nordic Unmanned acquired Camflight AS, a Norwegian manufacturer of heavy lift utility drones, in 2016, and the STAAKER Company AS, a Norwegian manufacturer of miniature, harsh weather action drones, in 2019. 

It also acquired AirRobot, a German drone and robotics company, and Ecoxy, a Norwegian company that measures and reduces harmful air emissions from energy production, in 2021. As of May 2022, Nordic Unmanned has moved to buy 55% of the shares in DroneMatrix to scale its offerings and introduce new services.

Since its establishment, Nordic Unmanned has significantly contributed to the environment. In 2021 alone, they conducted 51 search and rescue operations, 93 hours of maritime surveillance, 62 flights on fishery control, and 325 environmental flights for emissions monitoring. They saved 3025 tonnes of CO2 emissions using their remotely piloted aircraft systems.

Industry Segment

Nordic Unmanned has it’s hand in aerospace component manufacturing but their primary success has been as a service provider for industries such as security, maritime surveillance, infrastructure, and logistics. For the sake of comparing their offerings on Defining Drones, we believe they fit better under Aerial Services & Operations.

Country of Origin

Nordic Unmanned is a Norwegian company. Its headquarters are in Sandnes, Rogaland, Norway, and other branches in Denmark, The United Kingdom, and Norway.

Countries of Operation

Nordic unmanned started operating within Norway, its mother nation, but the company has since expanded its operation into several European countries. As of August 2022, Nordic Unmanned operates in over 13 countries, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus, Belgium, Estonia, and the United States of America.

Age

Nordic Unmanned was founded in 2014, making the company 9 years as of our last update.

Size

Over the years, Nordic Unmanned has grown in employee count and countries of operation. The company currently has between 100 to 200 employees and operates in over 13 countries, including the United States. According to the company’s LinkedIn page, it currently employs 102 people.

Founders/CEO

Knut Roar Wiig 

Knut Roar Wiig is a co-founder and the current CEO of Nordic Unmanned. He attended the University of Stavanger in Rogaland, Norway, where he obtained his Bachelor’s certificate in Business Administration. So far, in his lifetime, Knut has founded and co-founded several companies, many of which were unsuccessful. 

The companies Knut founded include Skaulen AS in 2006 and Wiig Drinks AS in 2013, while the companies he co-founded include Nordic Unmanned in 2014, Last Stop Shop ApS in 2014, and the Haciendas-Company AS in 2012. Knut departed the Haciendas Company in 2016 to focus on building Nordic Unmanned.

Although Knut Wiig co-founded Nordic Unmanned and currently serves as the company’s CEO, he had no professional or educational background in robotics or aviation before starting the company.

Svein Magne Kleven

Svein co-founded Nordic Unmanned in 2014 alongside Knut and a few other investors. Upon starting the company, he functioned as the operations director from Sep 2014 to April 2017, while Knut served as the CEO. Since April 2017, Svein no longer worked as a staff member at Nordic Unmanned but remained a co-founder.

Svein attended Stavanger Technical School, where he majored in Electrical, Electronic, and Communications Engineering Technology. In 1996, he joined the Norwegian navy, serving in different positions until 2017. Then joined the Norwegian home guard, where he currently holds the title of Lieutenant Commander. He also has professional experience working at Subsea 7 and IKM Subsea AS, where he held different positions mostly related to project management.

Chief Pilot

Nordic Unmanned appointed Beck Terje in May 2022 as the company’s chief pilot to oversee the day-to-day operations of their drones and pilots, including their flights and pilot performance. 

Before joining Nordic Unmanned, Beck worked as the fleet manager at Recover Norge between Sep 2020 and May 2022. Recover Norge is a fire, water, and environmental damage remediation company based in Norway. Before that, he worked as the Driftsleder (Operations Manager) at Implenia Norge, a Swiss construction and real estate service provider, between Jun 2014 and Sep 2020. 

Beck has no prior working experience in the aviation industry. However, between May and June 2022, he received licenses and certifications from Droneakademiet AS, a training facility for unmanned aerial systems based in Norway; the Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority; and the JAA Training Organisation, a non-profit organization that offers training courses on drones and is recognized by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

Competitive Edge

Nordic Unmanned prides itself as the first European company to do what it does. The lack of strong competitors is a huge advantage to the company.

Controversy

Nordic Unmanned has been trying to enforce its patent on coaxial multi-rotors. A coaxial multirotor is a setup in which two motors on the same axis rotate in opposite directions. This configuration allows the drone to fly higher and even remain mid-air in case of a motor failure. The patent was granted to AirRobot – a company Nordic Unmanned bought in 2021.

The problem, however, is that most manufacturers disagree with Nordic Unmanned on this patent enforcement. This disagreement is because coax motors already existed, albeit in manned aircraft. These manufacturers believe they can easily replicate coaxial motor engineering, so they see no reason why they should obtain Nordic Unmanned’s license. 

Aircraft

Nordic Unmanned operates a wide range of fleets, but the most notable ones are the CAMCOPTER® S-100, Lockheed Martin Indago, BG-Class, and Railway Drone.

The CAMCOPTER® S-100 is Nordic Unmanned’s top-performing drone and has proven capability for military and civilian applications. It is a mini helicopter with a maximum take-off weight of 200kg and a payload capacity of 50kg. The S-100 can operate day and night, with a range of 200km, over land and sea with a flight time of up to 10 hours. 

The Martin Indago system weighs less than 10 pounds, can fit in a small backpack, and can be deployed in about 2 minutes. This drone has caught the attention of security experts in the military and the private sector. It is designed to endure harsh weather conditions, capture high-resolution images, and give off very little noise, making it suitable for tactical situational awareness and intelligence collection.

The BG-Class drones include the Staaker BG100, BG150, BG200, and BG300. According to Nordic Unmanned, they are designed for strength and toughness to withstand the Nordic climates. The BG200, in particular, has an eight-motor configuration that can survive multiple rotor failures. It also has a max take-off weight of 25kg and is often used in mapping, photogrammetry, and LiDAR

scanning.

The Railway Drone is a version of the Staaker BG300, specially made for the railway industry to enhance maintenance and inspection tasks. It can drive on the railway to carry out inspections and collect data. In case of oncoming traffic, it can fly off the track, let the traffic pass, then continue its assessment. 

Technology

Nordic Unmanned has its range of drones and related products manufactured by the Nordic Unmanned Research and Development department. It is also a reseller of several other OEM drones. The Staaker product range, for instance, is produced in-house. It includes the Staaker BG100, BG150, BG200, BG300, Staaker battery charger, and Staaker drop payload. Some other products, however, such as Lockheed Martin and Textron, are made by OEMs.

Nordic Unmanned sells the RPAS (remotely controlled aircraft systems) to national and international customers and uses them in various applications.

Approvals

Nordic Unmanned is licensed to operate in 13+ European countries and the United States. The company has the Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC), which allows it to deploy its entire fleet of eight different Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) models for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights in all EASA member countries by self-approving its operations.

Growth

Nordic Unmanned was established in 2014. Since then, the company has grown to over 100 employees and expanded its operations across 13 countries. 

After its establishment in 2014, Nordic Unmanned got its ISO 9001-2015 certification by DNVGL as a drone and sensor operator. Then in 2018, the company won its first contract with the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) on an emissions monitoring project. At this point, its employee count was 17.

In 2020, Nordic Unmanned made the world’s first cargo drone flight to an offshore oil and gas installation owned by Equinor. That same year, the company became Europe’s first publicly listed drone operator. In 2021, Nordic Unmanned acquired AirRobot in Germany and Ecoxy in Norway, while 2021 saw the extension of the ISO 9001-2015 certification to include operation, maintenance, sales, design, development, and production of unmanned systems and sensors.

Revenue

So far, Nordic Unmanned experienced its most significant financial growth in 2021, recording EUR 10.4M in revenue, a staggering 60% increase from the previous year. 

Social Stats

Nordic Unmanned operates five social media accounts: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. LinkedIn comes first, having the most follower count, while Twitter comes last, having the least.

LinkedIn – 8,374 followers.

Twitter – 306 followers.

Instagram – 1,122 followers.

Facebook – 2.3k followers.

Youtube – 418 subscribers.

But wait, there’s more!

Nordic Unmanned is only one of the major players in this evolving industry. Click here to check out our full list of companies leading the way!