Military Orders Additional Raven Aircraft

Aerovironment Inc, received an order worth $46 million for to supply its Raven unmanned aircraft system to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps. The order is a part of an existing contract between the Pentagon and Aerovironment and will be completed over the next 12 months. Aerovironment develops and manufactures its unmanned aircraft at a facility in Simi Valley. The new order includes 123 new Raven systems and 339 digital retrofit kits for the U.S. Army, and 186 digital retrofit kits for the Marine Corps. U.S. armed forces use the Raven for base security, route reconnaissance, mission planning and force protection. “These backpackable, hand-launched unmanned systems provide situational awareness directly to our warfighters, increasing mission effectiveness and safety,” said Tom Herring, senior vice president and general manager unmanned aircraft systems. Mark R. Madler