Red Cat introduces cost-effective “family” of small ISR and attack drones

Air war, land war

Red Cat’s Teal 2 system takes off. (RedCat)

EUROSATORY 2024 – Drone technology company Red Cat Holdings has launched a new family of small, low-cost drones to meet the needs of the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, the company announced Monday.

The report presented on the first day of the Eurosatory conference in Paris Red Cat said the drone family has “complementary capabilities and a common ground control system.” The three unmanned systems are designed to meet intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements, as well as missileions, according to the company.

“Technology integrations and partnerships that connect and optimize this new family of systems will play a significant role in its success,” said George Matus, Red Cat’s chief technology officer, in a company press release. “Open architecture and established relationships with some of the leading hardware and software companies in autonomy, AI, machine learning and computer vision will allow us to expand our capabilities over time.”

As part of the new offering, Red Cat unveiled a new drone called FANG. The drone is currently under development and is being certified by Blue UAS, but once it is in service with military users, the company says the first-person view system will be able to carry lethal payloads or work alongside ISR drones depending on mission requirements. According to Red Cat’s press release, the FANG’s flight time is limited to 10 minutes.

Earlier this month, Red Cat announced that it plans to acquire FlightWave Aerospace Systems, in part to acquire the rights to the latter company’s Edge 130 Blue drone. According to Red Cat, the Edge 130 Blue is a “hybrid VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) drone that weighs less than 3 pounds and can be assembled and launched within a minute to collect “high-precision aerial imagery with long-range autonomy.” In forward flight mode, it has a flight time of about two hours, according to the company.

Rounding out Red Cat’s drone family is the company’s existing Teal 2 system, with features such as “night vision, multi-vehicle control, and a fully modular design,” the company’s press release states. With a 30-minute flight time, the drone can be combined with FPV drones like the FANG to assess battle damage once a target has been engaged.

Red Cat says the company is interested in further improving its drone offerings with new features such as better batteries, improved command and control links, and payloads with electro-optical or thermal imaging. The company plans to drive these improvements through both internal research and development and partnerships with industry.

Red Cat’s FANG drone was presented at Eurosatory 2024. (Red Cat)