Insitu receives $21M order for RQ-21A Blackjack drone parts

Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Insitu Inc. has received a $21 million order against a previously awarded contract for parts and sustainment of the RQ-21A unmanned aircraft system.

The maintenance of the RQ-21A, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, will be in support of Naval Special Warfare fleet operations. Procurement of the parts will take place in Bingen, Wash., and is expected to run through June 2018.

The RQ-21A Blackjack is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned aerial system used by the Marine Corps and Navy. It uses a catapult for launch and a hook-and-line system for recovery, obviating the need for a runway and letting it be deployed from both land and ships.

Each system is composed of five aircraft, two ground command units and a launch and recovery system. The Blackjack can carry several kinds of mission payloads, including surveillance video, communications relays and target designation gear such as lasers.

It has a range of over 30 miles and can stay in the air for up to 16 hours depending on the mission. It was first deployed by the Marine Corps in 2016, and a foreign military sale to Canada was approved the same year.