The US still chose a drone model for short-range reconnaissance

The US Army finally chose Red Cat's Black Widow drone, which won the tender for the supply of short-range reconnaissance drones.

Here's What We Know

The American company Red Cat has won the US Army's Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) Programme tender. According to the company's CTO George Matus, this is the "moment of truth" that culminated five years of hard work.

The US Army plans to purchase 5,880 systems, including Black Widow drones and Warfighter Electronic Bridge ground stations. The contract is for five years with an option to extend the delivery.

The Black Widow is a 1.63kg quadcopter with a flight time of over 35 minutes and a range of over 8km. It is equipped with a 64 megapixel daytime camera that records 4K video and a Boson+ 640 Radiometric thermal imaging camera with a resolution of 640×512 pixels. The drone can automatically recognise targets, create 3D maps of the area, determine coordinates even without access to GPS, and avoid obstacles autonomously.

The communication system operates with a pseudo-random frequency hopping (PRFH) function encrypted according to the AES-256 standard, which makes it resistant to electronic jamming. The drone is also equipped with a Picatinny rail for hanging additional equipment.

In September 2024, the United States created the first platoon of unmanned systems in the infantry. The new unit of 21 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division was formed as part of the Transformations in Contact initiative to integrate drones into combat missions.

Source: Red Cat