QinetiQ awarded Talon robot follow-on

MCLEAN, Va., May 29 (UPI) -- Virginia-based QinetiQ North America has been awarded a follow-on contract to deliver additional roadside-bomb-detecting robots to the U.S. military.

QinetiQ North America says a subsidiary of the company's Technology Solutions group, Foster-Miller, received the $400 million follow-on deal for additional Talon robots. The contract is from the U.S. Defense Department's Robotic Systems Joint Program and is in addition to a $150 million award the company received in 2007.

The Talon robots are deployed by the U.S. military to identify and detect improvised explosive devises and other terrorist threats in the Iraq and Afghanistan combat theaters and elsewhere. Company officials say more than 2,000 Talon robots are now in service with military units.

"This contract is further evidence of the growing acceptance and willingness on the part of our military to use Talon robots to keep our soldiers and Marines as safe as possible," William Ribich, QinetiQ North America Technology Solutions group president, said in a statement.