Military-Grade Drone Optimized for Night Operations
Red Cat Holdings—the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based purveyor of robotic hardware and software germane to the global drone industry—announced the launch of its Teal 2 military-grade small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS).
Previously limited to early-adopters such as the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which ordered 54 specimens of the robust, quad-copter drone, the Teal 2 was declared universally available to military, government, and commercial customers at 2023’s Army Aviation Association of America’s (AAAA) Mission Solutions Summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Teal 2 sUAS system is manufactured at Red Cat’s Salt Lake City factory.
Red Cat CEO Jeff Thompson stated: “Most military operations take place at night, and the Teal 2 is exactly the sUAS that warfighters have been asking for. Teal 2 is designed to dominate the night, and arrives as the world’s leading small unmanned aircraft system for nighttime operations. The system also offers the latest Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) technology, delivering time-critical information and enabling operators to make faster, smarter decisions.”
The Teal 2 is the world’s first sUAS equipped with the Hadron 640R sensor, a superb bit of kit developed by Portland, Oregon-based Teledyne FLIR—a highly-regarded designer, manufacturer, and distributor of Forward-Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) technologies and products
Rugged, portable, and deployable in the harshest environments, the Teal 2’s multi-vehicle command and control capability enables 360-degree viewing of a single target or ISR observation of multiple targets. What’s more, by virtue of its Teledyne FLIR giblets, the Teal 2 offers operators the highest resolution thermal imaging available in a compact (Group 1) UAS.
In addition to Teledyne FLIR, Red Cat developed the Teal 2 in partnership with Athena AI, Reveal Technology, and Tomahawk Robotics.
Red Cat subsidiary Teal Drones is a member of the Blue UAS list of manufacturers—a small group of maverick technology concerns authorized to provision the U.S. military with esoteric implements of modern warfare. Teal Drones is one of only three drone-makers invited to participate in the Short Range Reconnaissance Tranche 2 (SRR T2)—a Pentagon initiative that set out to equip U.S. Army platoons with a sUAS capable of improving American warfighters’ situational awareness by carrying out Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
Mr. Thompson added: “The advanced technology and innovative design of the Teal 2 will help redefine the future of defense. The AAAA summit this week is your first opportunity to see the system up close and in person.”