Teal Drones

Facilities & manufacturing

• Production setup

  2025-08-18 - Lantronix reported that production shipments of its compute solution had begun for Black Widow aircraft under the U.S. Army SRR programme.

  Source

Supply chain relationships

• Doodle Labs

  Inbound - Communications - Black Widow uses a Doodle Labs radio

  Source
• Teledyne FLIR

  Inbound - Perception - Teledyne FLIR Hadron 640R is integrated into Teal 2

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• Mitch McDonald - President - Leads Teal Drones as it scales secure U.S.-manufactured tactical aircraft for Army and allied programs.

Events

• 2026-10-12 - Product Launch - Red Cat unveils TRICHON VTOL ISR drone

  Red Cat Aerial combines the two teams and technologies under one public identity. TRICHON combines long-endurance VTOL ISR with an electronics core drawn from technology used by U.S. and allied operators. The new platform joins Black Widow, FANG, Edge 130 and Hellcat at AUSA 2026 in Washington, D.C.

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• 2026-07-30 - Contract Award - Red Cat receives $2.49m U.S. Air Force order for Black Widow systems

  Red Cat’s Teal Drones subsidiary received a $2.49m firm-fixed-price U.S. Air Force contract for Black Widow small UAS, training, batteries, spares and support. The order includes train-the-trainer support, batteries, spares and shipping. Contract delivery is due by 24 August 2026.

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• 2026-07-29 - Demonstration - Red Cat validates five partner integrations on Black Widow and Teal 2

  Black Widow testing covered Hoverfly NEXUS communications extension, Safe Pro AI threat detection on collected imagery and Palantir vision navigation in simulated GNSS-denied conditions. Teal 2 testing covered Vigilare TitanOps voice and text commands, scene narration, configurable alerts and course-of-action concepts. Reveal Technology conducted repeatability testing for imagery, photogrammetry and 3D mapping, but the release did not identify the Red Cat aircraft used.

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• 2026-05-21 - Contract Award - Red Cat to deliver Black Widow drone systems under Japan Ministry of Defense contract

  Red Cat issued a corrected release for its Japan Ministry of Defense / JGSDF Black Widow contract. The corrected release states that each system includes Black Widow aircraft, the WEB ground control station and other mission-critical components. Red Cat said fulfillment will be coordinated with Japanese partner HAMA K.K., with local industrial involvement expected to deepen over time.

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• 2026-04-02 - Contract Award - Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from NATO ally

  A NATO ally selected Red Cat's Black Widow sUAS through a competitive tender in March 2026. Delivery of an undisclosed number of systems is scheduled during calendar year 2026. The contract was facilitated through the NATO Support and Procurement Agency procurement channel.

  Source
• 2026-02-02 - Contract Award - Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from Asia-Pacific ally

  An unnamed Asia-Pacific ally selected Red Cat's Black Widow sUAS through a competitive tender in December 2025. Delivery of an undisclosed number of systems is scheduled during calendar year 2026. This was the second Asia-Pacific allied nation to recently order Black Widow systems for military use.

  Source
• 2025-10-27 - Demonstration - Red Cat completes Palantir VNav flight test on Black Widow

  The flight test used Palantir Visual Navigation to guide Black Widow from onboard imagery in simulated GPS-denied conditions. Black Widow completed the test after its acceptance into the Army Short Range Reconnaissance programme of record. Red Cat described VNav as a modular software integration for contested navigation environments.

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• 2025-10-14 - Partnership - Redwire and Red Cat pair Black Widow with Stalker for Army echelon concept

  The concept uses Edge Autonomy's Stalker Group 2 fixed-wing VTOL aircraft as a carrier, launch platform, and communications relay for Black Widow. That architecture links a longer-endurance Group 2 aircraft with a deployable Group 1 reconnaissance system. The companies framed the integration around supporting multiple U.S. Army echelon requirements.

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• 2025-09-11 - Regulatory - Red Cat Black Widow approved for NATO NSPA catalogue

  Catalogue inclusion lets NATO member nations and eligible partners procure Black Widow through NSPA-managed channels. NSPA provides a multinational acquisition route without requiring each buyer to establish a separate procurement framework. Teal Drones remains the system manufacturer and Red Cat subsidiary behind the aircraft.

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• 2025-08-18 - Partnership - Lantronix Open-Q 5165N powers Red Cat Black Widow drones

  Lantronix had begun production shipments of Open-Q 5165N modules for Black Widow when it announced the design win. The module is built around Qualcomm QRB5165 compute and provides onboard edge-AI processing. Lantronix described the module as TAA- and NDAA-compliant for U.S. government drone programmes.

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• 2025-05-27 - Partnership - Red Cat partners with ESAero for Black Widow manufacturing

  ESAero’s vertically integrated facilities cover engineering, design for manufacturing, rapid prototyping, testing and serialized production. The work supports Red Cat’s production ramp for U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance contracts and demand from U.S. and international customers. ESAero said its San Luis Obispo facilities provide more than 130,000 square feet of AS9100-certified manufacturing capacity.

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• 2025-02-24 - Regulatory - Red Cat Black Widow and Edge 130 selected as Blue UAS Refresh winners

  Black Widow and Edge 130 were included in a refresh cohort covering 23 platforms and 14 unique components. Selected systems proceed through NDAA verification and cybersecurity review for potential Blue UAS List or Framework inclusion. The pathway is designed to make vetted systems available for government procurement.

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• 2024-12-16 - Partnership - Red Cat partners with Palantir for Black Widow visual navigation and Warp Speed

  Palantir Visual Navigation uses onboard camera imagery to estimate position when satellite navigation is unavailable or degraded. The agreement also covers Palantir Warp Speed, a manufacturing operating system intended to support Black Widow production. The integration targets autonomous flight in GPS-compromised operating environments.

  Source
• 2024-11-19 - Contract Award - Red Cat wins U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance Program of Record selection

  The Army decision concluded a competitive evaluation conducted across multiple SRR tranches. Black Widow is delivered with the WEB ground-control system for short-range reconnaissance missions. Red Cat said the programme decision shifted its focus to ramping Black Widow and WEB production for Army users.

  Source
• 2024-10-14 - Product Launch - Red Cat introduces ARACHNID family of small ISR and precision-strike systems at AUSA 2024

  The family spans Black Widow, Edge 130, FANG, and the WEB ground-control system for platoon- and company-level missions. WEB provides a common command interface across the family, linking reconnaissance aircraft and precision-strike systems into one operating architecture.

  Source

Relationships

• Red Cat

  Wholly Owned Subsidiary - Teal Drones is a wholly owned subsidiary of Red Cat following the completed 2021 acquisition.

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Shared workflows

• Drone Volt

  workflow adjacency - Tactical UAS

• Hexadrone

  workflow adjacency - Tactical UAS

• Acodyne

  workflow adjacency - Tactical UAS

Context tags

• Aerial robotics supply chain - Stack Layer - Verified supply-integration evidence supports aerial robotics supply chain context for this profile.
• Defence UAV builder - Stack Layer - Verified supply-integration evidence supports aerial defence robotics context for this profile.
• Tactical UAS operations - Workflow - Verified supply-integration evidence supports tactical uas context for this profile.

• Red Cat receives $2.49m U.S. Air Force order for Black Widow systems

  2026-07-30 · Order / contract · Red Cat’s Teal Drones subsidiary received a $2.49m firm-fixed-price U.S. Air Force contract for Black Widow small UAS, training, batteries, spares and support.

  Source
• Red Cat to deliver Black Widow drone systems under Japan Ministry of Defense contract

  2026-05-21 · Order / contract · 173

  Source
• Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from NATO ally

  2026-04-02 · Order / contract

  Source
• Red Cat secures Black Widow orders from Asia-Pacific ally

  2026-02-02 · Order / contract

  Source
• Red Cat wins U.S. Army Short Range Reconnaissance Program of Record selection

  2024-11-19 · Order / contract

  Source