Small UAS prototype gets another round of funding from U.S. Army
NewsJune 28, 2023
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico. Red Cat Holdings, Inc., a hardware-enabled software provider to the drone industry, announced that its subsidiary Teal Drones has signed a contract with the U.S. Army -- worth an additional $1.2 million -- to continue developing a new small uncrewed aerial system (sUAS) prototype for the Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program.
Teal was first awarded a prototype contract for the SRR Tranche 2 program in March 2022; the Army is now obligating a total of $2.7 million for Teal’s participation.
Teal is one of three vendors competing in the second and final tranche of the SRR program, the object of which is to provide Army platoons (20 to 50 soldiers) with a rapidly deployable surveillance and reconnaissance capability to gain situational awareness beyond the next terrain feature. After completing a series of testing and demonstration milestones, the winning vendor(s) will produce a rucksack-portable sUAS.
“Uncrewed systems are a disruptive technology that provide soldiers an unfair advantage on the battlefield,” said Maj. Josh McMillion, U.S. Army SRR APM. “SRR is the Army’s solution to provide this capability now to ensure our soldiers have the technological edge over the enemy in any operational environment and never have a fair fight.”
Teal’s SRR prototype is reported to feature some of the same up-to-the-moment intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) technology found in its recently launched new military-grade sUAS.
