US-based military aerial target provider Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has received a $57.6m modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to exercise options to procure full rate production Lot Five of the BQM-177A programme.
Under the terms of the deal, Kratos will provide for the production and delivery of 70 BQM-177A surface launched aerial targets and 70 rocket assisting takeoff attachment kits, as well as associated technical and administrative data in support of weapons system test, and evaluation, and fleet training for the US Navy.
In an 18 March release, Steve Fendley, president of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, said that the company “looked forward” to increasing the production rate of the BQM-177A Sub-Sonic Aerial Target (SSAT).
Greg Crewse, program manager for the US Navy’s Aerial Targets program office (PMA-208), said that the acquisition of such target systems were “growing ever more critical”.
In February Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announced the pricing of an underwritten offering of 16,666,667 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $18.00 per share pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The net proceeds to Kratos from the offering, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, were expected to be approximately $288m.
In the company’s 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 financial results, disclosed in mid-February, Kratos reported revenues of $1.03bn for FY2023, a 15.5% growth from FY2022. Revenues in Q4 2023 were $273.8m, a 9.8% growth from the same period in 2022.
