Army awards Teledyne $91M contract for personal reconnaissance drones

The Army has awarded Teledyne FLIR Defense a $91 million, five-year contract for its Black Hornet 4 personal reconnaissance drones, the company recently announced.

The Black Hornet 4 can be easily carried and launched by soldiers, and the drone then sends video and pictures back to the operator, the company said Tuesday. It is meant to “provide soldiers with situational awareness more safely from a protected position,” and to enable squad and small unit surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Army began acquiring Black Hornet 3 drones for the Soldier Borne Sensor program in 2018 and have placed orders worth more than $215 million altogether in the years since, according to Teledyne.

The Soldier Borne Sensor program “provides units with near-real-time video, increased situational awareness and reduced risk of detection, while allowing units to detect personnel and targets,” according to the Army.

In 2023, the Army awarded Teledyne a contract for 8,000 of the Black Hornet 3 variant of the drone, Inside Defense reported.

For the recent contract for Black Hornet 4, Teledyne has already received $25 million in initial orders to cover delivery of the first tranche of the drones, along with controllers, spare parts and training, according to the company.