AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems and KOR Electronics Enter into Strategic Alliance
Collaboration to Expand Shadow® Multi-Mission Payloads Family with SIGINT, Other Capabilities
Hunt Valley, Md. and Cypress, Calif. – April 11, 2012 AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, and KOR Electronics Defense Solutions, a subsidiary of Mercury Computer Systems (NASDAQ: MRCY), announced today a strategic alliance that combines AAI’s expertise as a UAS systems integrator with KOR’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment.
The organizations intend to integrate KOR’s SIGINT products, focused on expeditionary tactical unmanned aircraft such as AAI’s renowned Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System, as a new addition to AAI’s family of Multi-Mission Payloads (MMP). Each modular MMP “pod” can be attached quickly to the Shadow aircraft to equip it for the mission at hand.
“This technology provides warfighters actionable, time-sensitive data on the capabilities and activities of their adversaries,” said Senior Vice President and General Manager Steven Reid of AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems. “Equipping our Shadow aircraft — a trusted and omnipresent asset for so many U.S. and allied customers — for this collection mission can help deliver intelligence fast, and to a broader array of deployed forces and formations.”
“During the process of evaluating initial alliance partners, KOR recognized that AAI Unmanned Aircraft Systems was a market leader in UAS design, development, production and support, and that the Shadow Tactical UAS is ideally suited for KOR’s market-leading SIGINT precision location capability,” said KOR Electronics President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Carnino. “KOR’s precision location capability, coupled with the Shadow aircraft’s existing electro-optic/infrared sensor, will significantly improve the find, fix and finish timeline and enhance the utility of the Shadow system’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role.”
