Posted on 04/25/2005 10:50:56 PM PDT by Righty_McRight
Boeing Co. received a $14.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy for unmanned aerial vehicles and related services, the company said Monday.
Boeing will provide ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), communication links and ground equipment to support the Navy's requirements. The Navy will use the ScanEagle systems during missions to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage and to increase oil platform security in the Persian Gulf.
The UAV, developed and built by Boeing and Bingen, Wash.-based Insitu Group, was first deployed with the First Marine Expeditionary Force in summer 2004.
ScanEagle carries either an inertially stabilized electro-optical or an infrared camera, allowing the operator to track both stationary and moving targets, providing real-time intelligence. The UAV is four feet long and has a 10-foot wingspan.
ScanEagle is launched via a pneumatic wedge catapult launcher and flies pre-programmed or operator-initiated missions. It is retrieved using a "Skyhook" system in which the UAV catches a rope hanging from a 50-foot high pole.
Phantom Works, Boeing's research and development unit headquartered in St. Louis, is assisting in the development of ScanEagle.
Chicago-based Boeing Co.'s (NYSE: BA) Integrated Defense Systems unit, its largest subsidiary, is based in St. Louis and is the area's second-largest employer.
© 2005 American City Business Journals Inc.
"Boeing Co. received a $14.5 million contract from the U.S. Navy for unmanned aerial vehicles and related services, the company said Monday."
How many can they build for that price?
Some more details
http://www.compositesworld.com/hpc/issues/2005/January/699
http://editorials.arrivenet.com/gov/article.php/3255.html
http://www.navlog.org/ssgn_uav.html
Great to see all this progress. Means less lives lost in the field.
$100K per copy. 12 for a million ;)
Hard to say as this is a startup and there are the controls and launchers included, but the figure is $100K/bird.
Ah, cheaper than I thought they would be. Thanks!
Most UAVs have remarkably good value. Part of the reason is the technology isn't really new (I was flying RC airplanes in early-mid 60s), the other major factor is that the development costs are low enough that you have a lot of people making proposals and designs. Even Burt Rutan, of flying around the world firm, has a design for several classes of UAV.
The cost of UAV has been one of the headaches of Pentagon, but if you compare that with manned aircrafts, you will find out those UAV are much more cheap.
That "litterally" looks like something out of Star Wars.
Red6
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