A subsidiary of aerospace defense contractor Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. won a $57.7 million modification of an existing contract to provide its aerial target drones to the U.S. Navy.
San Diego-based Kratos (Nasdaq: KTOS) subsidiary Kratos Unmanned Systems division announced Monday that it won the contract modification for jet-powered aircraft it builds in Sacramento.
“It’s exciting to be a major part of this critically important capability for the U.S. Navy with our BQM-177A sub-sonic aerial target aircraft system,” said Steve Fendley, president of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, in a news release. “The 177A continues to push the envelope delivering leading-edge realistic threat-representative capabilities to support today’s peer-level threat environment.”
The contract modification calls for production and delivery of 70 of the surface-launched aerial targets and 70 rocket-assisted takeoff kits, as well as associated technical and administrative data in support of weapons system testing.
The Navy uses the target drones to practice shooting down advanced subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles.
Kratos ranks sixth on the Business Journal’s list of largest manufacturers in the Sacramento area, with about 450 local employees. It has local manufacturing in Sacramento County, at McClellan Park, and an engineering division in Roseville.
Some of the target drones Kratos builds can fly at just under the speed of sound at altitudes from 7 feet over sea level to 40,000 feet. The drones don't land. Rather, they parachute back to earth for reuse if they aren’t destroyed in the test.
In 2023, Kratos' Sacramento operations received $50 million in Navy orders for target drones along with $21 million in orders for target drones from the Air Force. In 2023, it also won $23 million in contracts from the Navy for Kratos’ unmanned tactical aircraft.
The tactical aircraft, called the Valkyrie, is a remote-controlled plane that can be flown by a ground controller, or it can be flown by the pilot or navigator in a fighter jet, where the Valkyrie serves as a reconnaissance craft or wingman for the fighter. Kratos in 2022 won contracts for nearly $50 million in orders for tactical drones, more than $51 million in orders in 2021 and $90 million in orders in 2020. In 2019, Kratos took more than $100 million in a series of drone orders, and it got more than $117 million in a series of orders for tactical drones in 2018.
