Red Cat Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCAT) has announced that their subsidiary, Teal Drones (“Teal”), has secured an additional $1.2 million to continue developing a new sUAS prototype for the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SRR) program.
Teal was first awarded a prototype contract for the SRR Tranche 2 program in March of 2022, and the Army is now obligating a total of $2.7 million for Teal’s participation. Teal is one of only three vendors competing in Tranche 2, which the Army has advised will now be the final tranche of the SRR program.
After vendors complete a series of testing and demonstration milestones, the winning vendor(s) will be selected to produce a rucksack-portable sUAS. The system will provide Army platoons (20 to 50 soldiers) with a rapidly deployable surveillance and reconnaissance capability to gain situational awareness beyond the next terrain feature.
The newly obligated funding brings additional objective requirements, originally assigned to Tranche 3, for the sUAS prototypes to meet.
Teal’s prototype will feature some of the same technology found in its new, military-grade sUAS, the Teal 2, that was officially launched in April. Teal 2 is designed to “Dominate the Night™” and arrives as the world’s leading sUAS for nighttime operations. The system offers the latest intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) technology, delivering time-critical information and enabling operators to make faster, smarter decisions.
Teal’s technology partners for its SRR effort include Teledyne FLIR, Doodle Labs and Immervision.
“A future SRR production contract is a major opportunity for any company selected, and Teal is excited to give the warfighter the best we have. I’m confident the SRR prototype we’re developing will meet and exceed the Army’s requirements.” — George Matus, Founder and CEO, Teal
“Uncrewed systems are a disruptive technology that provide soldiers an unfair advantage on the battlefield. SRR is the Army’s solution to provide this capability now to ensure our soldiers have the technological edge over the enemy in any operational environment and never have a fair fight.” — Major Josh McMillion, U.S. Army SRR APM