Kratos secures additional order from US Navy for aerial target system

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, a national security solutions provider, announced that it has a secured an additional order of $3.57m from the US Navy for its BQM-177A aerial target system.

The US Navy has exercised an option for the additional order, under its Contractor Logistics Support (CLS) and Engineering Services contract.

As per Kratos, the work under the contract will be funded incrementally and will be conducted at its facilities in both Sacramento and Point Mugu, California. When fully funded, the total contract value after exercising the option will be $7.4m.

Kratos unmanned systems division president Steve Fendley said: “Now that we’re beyond the Full Rate Production acquisition milestone, we’ve entered the operations and sustainment phase of the SSAT lifecycle.

“CLS and Engineering Services are vital to ensuring the continuing adaptation, operations, and maintenance of this agile, realistic, and highly configurable aerial target system designed specifically for the Navy’s challenging threat representation missions.

“Kratos is proud to be providing this support today and for the future as the number of missions and operational sites increase.”

BQM-177A is claimed to be the US Navy’s next-generation Sub-Sonic Aerial Target (SSAT). It is claimed to reach speeds in excess of 0.95 Mach, reach a maximum altitude of 40,000ft and a minimum altitude of 6.6ft, offering formidable threat emulation for air-to-air engagements.

Its aerodynamic design and performance capabilities are claimed to be suitable for highly-dynamic, high-subsonic, sea-skimming anti-ship cruise missile threat emulation.

In November, Kratos delivered the 100th production BQM-177A SSAT system to the NAVAIR, as part of its third and final Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) contract.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions’ Unmanned Systems Division (USD) secured the contract from the US Navy in support of low-rate initial production year 1 (LRIP 1) for BQM-177A SSAT drone systems in July 2017. The contract had an initial value of $34.5m.