UAVs, Blimps, and HSV-2, Oh My!

Cruisin’ for trouble The Boeing Co. in St. Louis, MO received a $13.9 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-05-C-0045) to provide persistent Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance UAV services for an Afloat Forward Staging Base, and on the High Speed Vessel, in direct support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism. Work will be performed onboard a Navy vessel in the Pacific, and is expected to be completed in September 2006. While the exact equipment was not specified in the release, DID covered that original contract and can offer additional details. We can also fill our readers in on the unfortunately-acronymed High Speed Vessels (HSV). ScanEagle returns(click for details) One could look at Boeing’s UAV systems and use elimination, but it so happens that the original $14.5 million U.S. Navy contract N00019-05-C-0045 involved Boeing’s ScanEagle UAV, a long-endurance, semi-autonomous robot plane that was originally designed to scan the waters for tuna schools. In recent years it found itself playing an important role for the US Marines instead, during land clashes like the September 2004 Battle of Fallujah. With this latest contract, it would appear that the ScanEagle’s role is quickly evolving toward persistent area surveillance on […]