Blackjack Award

The Navy has awarded a $78 million, firm-fixed-price contract modification to Insitu for six Low-Rate Initial Production Lot 4 RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aircraft systems.

This contract modification is for the air vehicles, ground control stations, launch and recovery equipment, spares and system engineering and program management, according to an Aug. 4 contract award announcement posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

In fiscal year 2016, the Navy plans to award a full-rate production contract to Insitu for nine Blackjack systems once the program passes a milestone review, service spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove wrote in a May 28 email to Inside the Navy.

The Blackjack is a combined Navy and Marine Corps program that provides persistent maritime and land-based tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance/target acquisition support for tactical-level maneuver decisions and unit-level force defense and force protection for naval amphibious assault ships, according to the Navy's budget justification documents. The FY-16 budget request revealed an additional three Blackjack systems will be purchased with wartime funding.