Insitu gets U.S. Navy Blackjack drone contract

WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) -- Insitu Inc. has received a $71.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for the production of Lot V RQ-21A Blackjack drones.

Under the contract, Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, is to provide air vehicle procurement, ground control stations, launch and recovery equipment, shipboard equipment kits, as well as systems engineering and program management.

Work will be performed in Washington state and Oregon, with an expected completion date of October 2017. Naval Air Systems Command is the contracting activity.

The RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned arial vehicle is a larger twin-tailed follow-on to the ScanEagle UAV and was selected in 2010 to serve the Navy and Marine Corps' needs for a small tactical drone.

The system provides maritime and land-based reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition data collection and dissemination. The Blackjack's open-architecture configuration can integrate new payloads quickly and can carry up to 25 pounds of sensor payloads.