Oct 15 2015
AeroVironment, Inc. today announced it has been awarded a firm-fixed-price contract from the United States Army totaling $18,485,495 to supply initial RQ-11B Raven® unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), spare parts and contractor logistics services to seven allied nations through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
AeroVironment's RQ-11B Raven Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) (Photo: Business Wire)
The AeroVironment Raven is the most widely used unmanned aircraft system in the world today. It is designed for rapid deployment and high mobility for applications requiring low-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. With a wingspan of 4.5 feet and weighing 4.2 pounds, the hand-launched Raven provides aerial observation, day or night, at line-of-sight ranges up to approximately 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
"Allied forces around the globe are increasingly relying on AeroVironment as the go-to source for small UAS that deliver powerful insight, on demand for valuable, real-time situational awareness - whenever and wherever needed," said Kirk Flittie, AeroVironment vice president and general manager of its Unmanned Aircraft Systems business segment. "Our systems help military personnel and enterprises operate more safely and effectively in some of the most challenging conditions and places on earth."
About AeroVironment Small UAS
RQ-11B Raven®, RQ-12 Wasp®AE, RQ-20A Puma™AE and Shrike VTOL™ comprise AeroVironment's Family of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Operating with a common ground control system (GCS), this Family of Systems provides increased capability to the warfighter that can give ground commanders the option of selecting the appropriate aircraft based on the type of mission to be performed. This increased capability has the potential to provide significant force protection and force multiplication benefits to small tactical units and security personnel. AeroVironment provides logistics services worldwide to ensure a consistently high level of operational readiness and provides mission services for customers requiring only the information its small UAS produce. AeroVironment has delivered thousands of new and replacement small unmanned air vehicles to the United States and allied customers.
The Puma AE small UAS comprises one component of AeroVironment's advanced, turnkey data collection, processing and delivery solution employed to provide enterprise customers with engineering-quality information, on demand, across multiple industries such as oil & gas, agriculture, utilities, transportation and others.