US Army orders Black Hornets
FLIR Systems has received a $2.6 million order from the US Army to deliver FLIR Black Hornet personal reconnaissance systems, the company announced on 30 May.
The UAS will support squad-level surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in the army’s first batch order for the Soldier Borne Sensor programme.
The army purchased Black Hornet for test and evaluation purposes in 2016 and 2017. The army will continue to evaluate and consider broader scale roll out of the Black Hornet for full operational deployment within all infantry units.
James Cannon, president and CEO of FLIR Systems, said: ‘The US Army’s selection of FLIR to provide the Black Hornet personal reconnaissance systems in this initial delivery of the Soldier Borne Sensor programme represents a key opportunity to provide soldiers in every US Army squad a critical advantage on the modern battlefield.
‘This contract demonstrates the strong demand for nano-drone technology offered by FLIR and opens the way for broad deployment across all branches of the military. We’re proud to provide the highly-differentiated Black Hornet PRS to help support the US government to achieve the objective of protecting its warfighters.’
Deliveries of the systems will take place in 2018.
Related Programmes in Defence Insight
Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) (Phase I) [USA]
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
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