Nichols Martin
Flir Systems has won a $20.6M contract to provide the U.S. Army with nano-size unmanned aerial vehicles designed to assist in surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The company said Thursday it will deliver the Black Hornet 3 personal reconnaissance systems that work to operate in silence for platoon- and small unit-level missions for a maximum flight time of 25 minutes. Deliveries will commence late this year.
The pocket-sized UAV units capture high-definition video footage that troops would use for situational awareness.
Black Hornet supports the service branch“™s Soldier Borne Sensor program that aims to bolster the situational awareness capacity of Army troops.
The new contract follows a previous $39.7M award that the Army issued in January last year for Black Hornet 3 units.
“Enabling warfighters with a full-range of integrated unmanned solutions, both in the air and on the ground, is a strategic objective Flir shares with the military,“ said Roger Wells, vice president and general manager of Flir“™s unmanned systems and integrated solutions unit.
Flir produces Black Hornet units in Norway.
