AAI receives $39 million award for additional Shadow systems

5th January 2010 - 08:30 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, announced today that it has received a $39 million production order for additional Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems (TUAS). The order includes two additional units for the US Army and one for the Marine Corps. Including this new order, a total of 116 Shadow TUAS have been ordered by the Army, Army National Guard, Army Special Forces and Marine Corps. To date, AAI has delivered 91 Shadow systems and deliveries now extend through March 2011.

Each Shadow system includes four Shadow aircraft; two One System ground control stations and ground data terminals; four One System Remote Video Terminals, or OSRVTs; a One System portable ground control station; and associated components and support equipment.

"With so many Shadow systems in the field and more than 460,000 flight hours amassed, we're witnessing an incredible evolution in mission capabilities," says AAI Vice President of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Steven Reid. "Our goal has been to continuously enhance the military utility of the aircraft, our ground control technologies and system ancillaries. As a result, we've seen mission profiles extend beyond reconnaissance and surveillance to target acquisition, intelligence-gathering and communications relay."