Date: 19 November, 2007
United Industrial Corporation (NYSE: UIC) announced today that its AAI Corporation subsidiary has begun training U.S. Marine Corps personnel to fly and maintain Shadow tactical unmanned aircraft systems (TUAS) in preparation for the service’s transition later this year to the Shadow surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence-gathering system.
The Marine Corps has decided to retire its Pioneer unmanned aircraft systems, which have supported its ground forces for over twenty years, including significant current action in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The new Shadow TUAS replacing the Pioneers have won military acclaim in deployment with U.S. Army units in Iraq for more than four years, and more recently, in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
In 1999, the U.S. Army selected AAI to be the prime contractor for its tactical unmanned aircraft system - the Shadow 200, which is designated by the Army as the RQ-7B. The U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps have initiated a joint procurement strategy designed to leverage existing contracts and acquisition efficiencies, as well as reduce total life cycle cost of ownership.
Under this plan, the Marine Corps intends to transfer procurement funds to the US Army, which manages the Shadow TUAS programme, to enable the Marines to acquire two new Shadow production systems from AAI, the prime contractor for Shadow.
In addition, AAI has been awarded a US$ 3.8 million contract from the U.S. Army to provide training services to the U.S. Marine Corps in connection with their transition to the Shadow TUAS.
This performance-based logistics contract designates US$ 3.4 million for transition training for U.S. Marine Corps personnel and US$ 415,000 for development of the Shadow training programme. The training contract is administered by the U.S. Army in coordination with U.S Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The two Marine Corps units scheduled to receive the Shadow systems are the VMU-1 “Watchdogs” based at 29 Palms, Calif. and the VMU-2 “Night Owls” based at Cherry Point, N.C. In Iraq and Afghanistan, Shadow-equipped units of the U.S. Army and National Guard have recorded a combined total of more than 180,000 flight hours and 37,000 sorties in support of combat operations.
In all worldwide operations, Shadows have registered over 200,000 flight hours and 49,000 sorties. Pioneer unmanned aircraft systems were produced by Pioneer UAV, Inc., a company owned equally by AAI Corporation and Israel Aerospace Industries, Ltd.