The Puerto Rican conglomerate Red Cat Holdingsspecialized in the manufacturing of drones for military and government applications, has announced a new strategic partnership with the American company Ocean Power Technologies, developer of low-emission energy, data and marine services solutions. Thanks to this agreement, organizations that use the platforms PowerBuoy y WAM-V of OPT will now be able to implement drones Teal 2 in their real-time marine threat analysis programs and strategies.
Red Cat has initiated this collaboration with the aim of improving its ecosystem of tactical autonomous solutions for the fields of security and defense in air, maritime and underwater environments. The integration of the subsidiary’s drones Teal with OPT’s domain knowledge system follows other recently signed partnerships with partners such as Primordial Labs, Tomahawk Robotics, Athenea AI, Teledyne FLIR, Reveal Technology, Immersion o Doodle Labsintended to enable advanced capabilities related to issues such as computer vision or artificial intelligence.
FAA approved drones
Unmanned aerial systems Teal 2 They are designed to support military operations of the United States Armed Forces and its allies, as well as missions of public security organizations or government agencies. These drones, belonging to the category sUAS (Small Unmanned Aerial System)stand out on the one hand for being extremely portable and cost-effective and, on the other, for having Blue UAS certification and remote identification approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In addition to having control support for multiple vehicles and a modular structure, according to the manufacturer, they are capable of “dominating the night”, since they integrate an advanced state-of-the-art night vision system.
Advanced maritime systems
Ocean Power Technologies has gained global recognition through the solutionPowerBuoywhich acts as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS for its acronym in English) constantly recharged by the energy of the waves. The equipment is deployed in open waters and floats above the point of use, constantly moored to a fixed point, and can operate in a wide range of depths, between 20 and 3,000 meters. Another of the company’s star products, developed by its subsidiary Marine Advanced Roboticsis he WAM-V o Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel, which is configured as an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV ) that uses an “articulated suspension system” to minimize its structural loading.
Response to Pentagon needs
According to Red Cat’s chief technology officer, George Hair, “the partnership with OPT is an important part of the group’s strategy to address the needs and requirements of the Pentagon’s Replicator Initiative with drone and swarm capabilities in multiple domains, including maritime missions.” Matus also assured that the company “sees a great opportunity for drones to expand ocean surveillance and situational awareness alongside autonomous surface vehicles, to quickly move data by air and sea, while increasing the safety of reconnaissance teams and combatants.”
For the commercial director of OPT, Matt Burdyny, “as technology plays an increasingly important role in protecting coastal and naval borders, as well as in potential battlefield scenarios, partnerships like the one signed with Red Cat are key to increasing the range and resilience of the mission of manned and unmanned assets that are part of a broader defense network.” All of these efforts are further developed based on the firm’s primary mission, which is “to provide advanced autonomy solutions for greater maritime situational awareness and other science and technology applications, including defense and security missions.”
