Insitu scores $41 million Navy contract for three Blackjack drone systems
Bingen, Wash.,-based Insitu Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, has won a Navy contract valued at $41,076,746, the Pentagon said Thursday.
That will pay for three of the company’s RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aircraft systems, including launch and recovery equipment.
The Blackjack is viewed as a bulkier successor to the Insitu ScanEagle system, as Flightglobal reported this summer. It is equipped with an internal bay and a variety of audio and video surveillance equipment.
The Blackjack appears to be a lucrative platform for Insitu. Flightglobal said the Navy plans to acquire 25 of the systems.
Work on the current contract will be performed in Bingen, the Pentagon said, and is scheduled to be completed in January 2016. The Navy said the contract was not competitively awarded.
