U.S. Army Orders of the Pocket-Sized Drones Top $ 85 Million
FLIR System's drone weighs 33 grams and the U.S. army is buying it in bulk, repeatedly.
Nano drones have become a major military tool over the past few years, and the most recent announcement of FLIR Systems being awarded an additional $20.6 million contract for their Black Hornet 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems (PRS) by the U.S. Army is one big example of that.
While the contract is huge, the FLIR Systems Black Hornet 3 is only the size of a cellphone. This extremely light and nearly silent drone can fly up to 25 minutes, and provide many military advantages in combat.
With this second contract, FLIR Systems will be providing the service with additional miniature reconnaissance drones as part of the ongoing soldier-borne sensor program, National Defense reports.
The relationship between FLIR Systems and the U.S. Army began in late 2018. Then, later on in January 2019, FLIR Systems was awarded a hefty $39.7 million contract with the service to supply the Black Hornet 3s. Those systems are currently being delivered for fielding.
Recently, in May 2021, FLIR won an additional $15.4 million contract to deliver even more drones to the U.S. Army.
In total, the U.S. Army has paid over $85 million dollars and the company delivered more than 12,000 units of the nano-UAV (it's unclear exactly how many was delivered to the U.S.).
Weighs only 33 grams
The drone weighs 33 grams or so (1.16 oz) which makes it pretty easy to use in combat. Wells stated, "It’s almost pocket portable as opposed to rucksack portable and [it] really doesn’t add a load burden to the soldiers and servicemen and women that are out there using it."