Boeing owned Insitu has been awarded the Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS)/Tier II contract from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) for its Integrator unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
The Integrator is a growth version of the company’s ScanEagle, but uses a common ground station and launch and recovery equipment. The air vehicle features twin boom tail and a deeper and broader fuselage, and is able carry larger and heavier sensors and communications packages than the ScanEagle for up to 25 hours duration.
The contract will see Insitu commence a two year engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase to build and test the system to ensure it satisfies the STUAS/Tier II system requirements, and to this end will support two operational assessments.
While an option exists within the contract to deploy a number of Integrator systems as early as later this year, IOC is expected in 2013. The total production requirement is expected to number more than 50 systems.