Insitu Pacific has received a three-year contract extension from the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to maintain its ScanEagle remotely controlled aircraft system (RPAS).
The extension allows RAN to continue to experiment and develop knowledge using the ScanEagle Maritime Unmanned Aerial System (MUAS), leveraging the basic capabilities developed during the start of operations of HMAS Newcastle in the Gulf of Oman in 2017.
Andrew Duggan, Managing Director of Insitu Pacific, said: “Insitu Pacific is proud to continue to support RAN’s ongoing RPAS experiments and testing in the next three years. “This contract extension provides us with an opportunity to deepen our experience in Australia. Existing sovereign capabilities and supply chains, and working with RAN to provide new testing capabilities in the next few years. “
Since 2014, ScanEagle has been experimenting and testing together with RAN.
RAN operates multiple ScanEagle systems in Nowra’s 822X squadron, and the contract extension allows MUAS training, tactical development, and payload evaluation activities to continue.
In the past seven years, Insitu Pacific has been supporting and developing the local capabilities of RAN, including multiple training programs and providing more in-depth maintenance and support outside of its Brisbane headquarters.
Comprehensive pilot and maintenance training courses for defense personnel remain a key success factor in providing effective remotely piloted aircraft support. These recent courses tried virtual training, and Nowra’s RAN operators were instructed by Brisbane’s Insitu Pacific Instructors.
Duggan said: “Due to the acceleration of the COVID-19 border closure, the successful launch of our virtual training program provides a valuable demonstration that RPAS training can be easily provided to personnel deployed in scattered bases across Australia.”
ScanEagle and the system platform series including Integrator have an impressive track record in supporting naval customers, with more than 66,000 hours of flying time on more than 24 types of ships worldwide in the past 16 years.
