Martek appoint leading UAS “Subject Matter Expert” as Technical Manager Preparing to dominate the market
7th June 2017- Martek Marine (Martek), the world authority on maritime drone applications is thrilled to announce the official appointment of drone specialist Martin Appel as UAS Technical Manager joining the rapidly expanding number of drone and aviation experts that make up the company’s UAS Division.
The appointment of Martin, follows the assignment of highly-acclaimed aviation expert Paul Forster as Head of UAS Operations. Both Martin and Paul joining the team is pivotal to Martek’s strategy, which will help to cement them as world leaders in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and achieve the company’s mission to, ‘Change the world using drones.’
The appointment is exciting news for both Martek and Martin, as Martin begins a new chapter in what's already an astonishing career. Presently a big gun in the UAS world, Martin is incredibly well-renowned and comes to Martek with a wealth of industry knowledge and a track-record of success gained through eleven years’ outstanding UAS experience in Abu Dhabi, following an exciting stint in helicopter aviation at the start of his career. A highly accomplished and well-regarded UAS Senior Maintenance Officer, a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for drones greater than 150kg and an Instructor and System Integration Project Officer, Martin benefits from an astonishing UAS maintenance and operations background.
It would seem that Martin and Martek are a match made in heaven: with a commendable track record of hands-on experience, Martin offers top-notch, wide-ranging skills across; service delivery; day-to-day fleet management; aircraft documentation; production processes; customer support & project planning. Martin is therefore well-versed analysing project requirements and will no doubt take optimising resources, as well as staff performance in his stride. These considerable skills are likely to be invaluable as Martin and the team continue to build on Martek’s success to monopolise the civilian maritime drone market.
No stranger to innovation, a stand-out highlight of Martin’s staggering career to date, has been implementing super innovative, highly efficient and cost-effective new solutions, including Electro-Optical (EO) system integration in UAS greater than 150kg, especially for maritime capabilities. With his extensive UAS knowledge and an unrivalled understanding of the industry learnt through years of hands-on experience, Martin offers the best expertise and technical prowess the industry has to offer and is set to make a significant impact within his new role as UAS Technical Manager.
“Martin is incredibly knowledgeable on current fixed wing and rotary aircraft sensor and surveillance technology, including a multitude of UAS platforms, Ground Control Stations (GCS) and Ground Support Equipment (GSE),” said Head of Martek UAS Operations, Paul Forster. “He has a thorough understanding of strategic and tactical employment of air sensor platforms and their associated capabilities and limitations and is bringing a vast amount of important knowledge to the Martek UAS team. We’re therefore delighted to have him join us!”
In January this year, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) issued the largest ever civilian maritime drone contact, valued at €67M. Under the contract awarded to Martek, drones will be used to assist with border control activities, search & rescue operations and monitoring of pollution, as well as the detection of illegal fishing and drug and people trafficking. Martek’s continued contractual success follows the company being awarded a previous €10M contract by EMSA for ship engine emission monitoring using drones in November 2016. Martek’s sister company COPTRZ provided consultancy on both contracts.
Benefits of using drones are wide-ranging and include; improved safety, reduced costs, maximised productivity and eliminated access challenges.
Martek Marine was formed by Paul Luen, Mike Pringle and Steve Coulson to offer pioneering solutions to improve safety, performance & welfare on ships. With steady growth across the world maritime industry, Martek Marine is now a truly global business supplying services to over 80 countries. The company are the world leader in marine engine emissions analysis systems and in response to customer demand in 2015, the company established the Martek Drones division to bring this new technology to the marine market.
Accreditations include; ISO 9001; Investors in People (Gold); The Institute of Customer Service; Queen’s Awards for Industry and Sunday Times Fast Track 100.
Further information can be found by visiting https://www.martek-marine.com/