Small (Level 0) Tactical UAS (STUASL0)

Abstract

The RQ-21A BLACKJACK (formerly known as The Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (STUAS)) is a combined United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) program that provides persistent maritime and land-based tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance/Target Acquisition support for tactical level maneuver decisions and unit level force defense/force protection for Naval amphibious assault ships (multi-ship classes) and Navy and Marine land forces. This system will support Naval Missions such as building the Recognized Maritime Picture, Maritime Security Operations, Maritime Interdiction Operations, and provide support for Naval Units operating from sea/shore in Overseas Contingency Operations. This submission is the USNs portion of the program and has been coordinated with the USMC budget submission PE 0305239M (RQ-21A). The RQ-21A BLACKJACK system will continue to evolve and upgrade capabilities to satisfy capabilities shortfalls, new requirements, and reliability, maintainability and safety issues. Upgraded capabilities may include Navy Command and Control integration, Extended Range, Weapons Integration, Heavy Fuel Engine, Laser Designator, Frequency Agile Communications Relay, Airborne Precision Engagement and Targeting, Digital Common Data Link, and cyclic refresh of the Electro-Optical/Infrared camera. RQ-21A BLACKJACK will continue to expand its shipboard capability across new ship classes. This program is funded under OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT because it includes development efforts to upgrade systems that have been fielded or have received approval for full-rate production and anticipate funding in the current or subsequent fiscal year.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2022
Source ID
0305234N_7_1319_PB_2022
Change Summary Explanation
Funding: The FY 2022 funding request was reduced by $2.259M million to account for the availability of prior year execution balances; $1.799M for cancelation of Production Development/Upgrade Efforts such as Extended Range, improve turret optics and target acquisition capability, or upgrades to reduce recovery damage and decrease the system's expeditionary footprint; and $0.209M for miscellaneous rate adjustments. Schedule: Revised to reflect the program's latest procurement funding profile.
Service Agency Name
Navy

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Navy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Aircrafts
  • Amphibious Assault Ships
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Command And Control
  • Force Protection
  • Maritime Security
  • Maritime Security Operations
  • Product Development
  • Program Management
  • Software Development
  • Surveillance
  • Target Acquisition
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Vertical Takeoff Aircraft

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Naval Mine Countermeasure Systems Development.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Directed Energy
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control

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