Kratos Delivers Subsonic Aerial Target Drone to U.S. Navy

By Mike Ball / 10 Jul 2018

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BQM-177A Subsonic Aerial Target Drone System

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. has announced the delivery of the first production BQM-177A Subsonic Aerial Target (SSAT) Drone System for the U.S. Navy. These production deliveries are part of the previously announced Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Year One contracts worth approximately $37 million.

To honor the occasion, Kratos is hosting a Rollout Celebration at the McClellan Conference Center in McClellan, California. This event, in partnership with the U.S. Navy, celebrates the first production delivery of Kratos’ highest performance jet powered unmanned aerial target drone system. Kratos has developed these drone systems for both tactical missions and threat representative target purposes, and provides them to all branches of the U.S. military, and many allied nations around the world.

Steve Fendley, Unmanned Systems Division President of Kratos, said, “We are honored to announce the delivery of the first production BQM-177A, arguably the highest performance unmanned aerial drone system in the world today, to our outstanding partner and customer the United States Navy. The SSAT program is one of the most important in all of Kratos, and it is expected to be one of the largest programs in our Company and a key element of our forecasted growth as we achieve full rate production quantities.”

Eric DeMarco, CEO of Kratos said, “Kratos has been methodically executing on the strategic plan we previously communicated to acquire and integrate leading technology, product and intellectual property based businesses, and be the leading platform, system and solution provider in our core business areas. The delivery of the first production unit BQM-177A is another milestone in our continued successful execution to be the differentiated and go-to partner with our DoD customers for the rapid development, demonstration and fielding of high performance, affordable systems.”

Posted by Mike Ball Mike Ball is our resident technical editor here at Unmanned Systems Technology. Combining his passion for teaching, advanced engineering and all things unmanned, Mike keeps a watchful eye over everything related to the unmanned technical sector. With over 10 years’ experience in the unmanned field and a degree in engineering, Mike’s been heading up our technical team here for the last 8 years. Connect & Contact

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