Teal Drones to Develop Prototype Reconnaissance sUAS for US Army

Teal Drones, a Red Cat Holdings subsidiary, said it was chosen to develop a prototype small aerial reconnaissance drone for the U.S. Army with a focus on autonomy.

Work will be done as part of the Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 program of record managed by the Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Army, Teal said Monday.

The goal of SRR T2 is to create a small unmanned aerial system that can be carried in a rucksack, providing platoons of up to 50 soldiers the ability to scout beyond their line of sight.

Teal said it now has the chance to compete with a handful of drone manufacturers for the Army’s SRR T2 production contract. George Matus, founder and CEO of Teal, said that out of more than three dozen drone manufacturers, the company was among the few that were selected to move on in the program. 

“We believe this puts us among the most elite drone manufacturers in the world and, consequently, is a significant recognition of our capabilities,” Matus added.

Teal said that the new $1.5 million prototype contract was awarded following a successful demonstration of the company’s design in September 2021.

SRR Tranche 1 launched in 2020. For that program, Teal developed one of the five drones that were eventually included in the first Blue sUAS list. Blue sUAS is a DOD-led effort to build out the U.S. domestic UAS industrial base. The other drone manufacturers on the list were Altavian, Parrot, Skydio and Vantage Robotics, according to a DIU press release.