Sea Power - May 2015

said. “We track the mission readiness rate, which is 95
percent, and both vendors maintain that.”
The United States is not the only nation using ISR
services. Insitu has relationships with the U.K. Royal
Navy, Canada, Colombia, Australia, the Netherlands,
Poland, Czech Republic, Singapore and Italy.

“We also provide ScanEagle services to the Japanese
Ground Self Defense Force [through Insitu Pacific’s in-
country partner, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries], and to Un-
manned Systems Technology in Malaysia [through in-
country partner Composites Technology Research Malay-
sia, now DEFTECH],” McNamara said. “Insitu continues
to work international opportunities to expand and grow
our business. Additionally, there continues to be strong
demand and international interest in ScanEagle UAS hard-
ware, ISR services and training via Foreign Military Sales.”
While the Navy and Marine Corps extensively
employed IRS services, the services developed a require-
ment for a program of record that would deliver a more
capable runway-independent ISR UAV capability. Insitu’s
Integrator was selected and a version is being procured as
the RQ-21A Blackjack. The Blackjack achieved early oper-
ational capability in 2014 with a deployment to Afghani-
stan and is on track to achieve initial operational capability
in 2016 with a deployment with the 22nd Marine
Expeditionary Unit. [See related story on page 54.]
“The Marine Corps requirement is 32 RQ-21A systems,
and the Navy requirement is 25 RQ-21A systems for ship-
board, special warfare and expeditionary missions,” Yelle
said. “For the Marine Corps, low-rate initial production
lots 1 and 2 have been delivered and lot 3 is in production.
Each system contains five air vehicles, two ground-control
stations and ancillary equipment comprising launch/
recovery mechanisms, tactical communications equip-
ment and spares. For the Navy: They will be buying three
systems this year, but those are not on contract yet.”
Yelle said that Blackjack requirements only tie it to
L-class [amphibious warfare] ships.

“NSW [naval special warfare] requirements may require Blackjack to operate from other air-capable ships, which will require some testing and non-recurring engineering to determine the most efficient way to integrate the Blackjack system,” he said.

“The development of the Blackjack program has
expanded our ISR capabilities, and led to an increase in
customer interest and demand,” McNamara said. “The
system is modular, versatile and multimission capable,
providing rapid transitions between land and maritime
environments. Blackjack’s open payload architecture is
customized with sensors, signals intelligence capabili-
ties and other tools to give the warfighter a look ahead
in all operational environments.”
The Blackjack’s procurement will not mean the end
of ISR services for the Navy and Marine Corps, by all
indications.

“ISR services’ demand has grown beyond the
requirements for RQ- 21,” Yelle said. “ISR services will
continue to fill the ISR gap until a program of record
meets the requirement.”
“We see strong and growing demand for Insitu’s
unmanned aircraft system solutions to meet the most
complex challenges and urgent needs of customers and
we are positioned to provide ISR services well into the
future,” McNamara said.

“While the current [ISR services] program was initiated to fill the time gap until the service’s organic asset is ultimately fielded, we believe that there is continued value in the operational agility that our fee-for-service approach offers,” Phillips said. “Our fee-for-service customers frequently need to insert capabilities into key areas rapidly. We’ve worked to make both our Aerosonde system and our fee-for-service capability as agile as possible; for example, we have launched some of our international sites in well under 90 days.

“We have shown the ability to integrate and operate sensors in the field based on emerging and urgent customer needs. We also have developed a highly expeditionary mobile configuration to utilize the system for mobile or on-the-move hub-and-spoke operations. As operational needs emerge or disasters occur, we continue to prove our ability to react quickly and provide critical capability.

“We believe this model will be increasingly important to both domestic and international customers for tactical and commercial requirements,” he said. “Developing systems, training personnel and sustaining a fleet of highly capable UAS [unmanned aerial systems] are complex, expensive and consumes both time and human resources. We’ve already made the initial investments required to establish this model and successfully operate ISR services.” ;

WWW.SEAPOWERMAGAZINE.ORG 50 SEAPOWER / MAY 2015 An Aerosonde Mk4.7G unmanned aerial vehicle is set for launch during sea trials in December in the Florida Keys.

Textron Systems Unmanned Systems has been providing turnkey fee-for-service operations with its Aerosonde small unmanned aircraft system to the Department of Defense since 2012.