Army, Marines to receive more Ravens

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MONROVIA, Calif., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- AeroVironment Inc. of California is supplying hundreds of new digital Raven unmanned aerial vehicle kits to the U.S. Marine Corps.

The order, valued at about $46.2 million, is under an existing contract and includes the supply of digital retrofit Raven kits to the U.S. Army.

"Raven systems have proven their value and reliability to military services across the U.S. Department of Defense," said Tom Herring, AeroVironment senior vice president and general manager, unmanned aircraft systems. "These backpackable, hand-launched unmanned systems provide situational awareness directly to our warfighters, increasing mission effectiveness and safety."

Under the order, AeroVironment will supply the Marines with 123 new Raven kits, initial spares packages and 186 retrofit digital kits. The Army will receive 339 retrofit kits.

The company said The Raven system and retrofit order represents the remainder of the funds appropriated for RQ-11B Raven system procurement in the 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

The orders were released under the existing U.S. Army joint small UAS program of record for AeroVironment's Raven. This program has included contract additions from the Army, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command.