A massive U.S. Navy drone contract was awarded to Boeing subsidiary Insitu last month, for the supply of 173 small unmanned aerial vehicles to the U.S. and foreign militaries.
As reported by The Motley Fool,
The future of aerial warfare, meanwhile, is looking more and more likely to be a future dominated by drones — and as we’re increasingly seeing, this is a future that Boeing aims to dominate.
Consider the evidence. In 2018 Boeing beat out several rivals (Lockheed among them) to win an $805 million development contract to design a fleet of MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based drones for the U.S. Navy. A few months later we learned that Boeing was among three finalists in a U.S. Army project to find a replacement for the venerable RQ-7 Shadow drone (currently built by Textron). One month later Boeing unveiled a project to develop jet-powered “wingman” drones to fly alongside Air Force fighter jets on combat missions.
The Pentagon announced Boeing’s latest contract in its digest of defense contracts awarded on June 28. Technically awarded to Boeing drone subsidiary Insitu, the contract describes the sale of “up to 63 RQ-21A attrition air vehicles” (i.e. drones) to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, of 17 more RQ-21As to “foreign military sales … customers … including the governments of Canada, Poland and Oman,” along with the sale of “up to 93 ScanEagle UASs in various configurations.”
Read the full article here.
The Motley Fool’s purpose is to make the world smarter, happier, and richer. While other companies may make you smarter, happier, or richer, we aim to do all three by providing outstanding business and investing advice — with a decidedly Foolish bent.
Insitu is an industry-partner of Shine Micro, Inc., and a pioneer of unmanned aircraft systems, including U.S. Navy drone aircraft. Insitu is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company and are headquartered in Bingen, Washington with offices in Oregon, California, Australia and the United Kingdom.